Happiness Through Struggle

About one year ago today, my life came to a shattering standstill. My wife had been unfaithful yet again and ran off to North Carolina (we live in Michigan). She was attempting to blame my PTSD from the military on difficulties in the marriage, but as I came to find out, it was her continuous abuse of prescription medications as well as a hereditary dissociative disorder that were leading her to make poor choices. Being that I worked mental health in the Air Force, I understood these struggles and tried everything to work it all out, despite that not being in my beset interest. She went on to continue to have affairs, at a point was going to leave me for a heroin addicted individual in Florida, who also has 13 felonies under his belt. She acquired a stalker who was a paranoid schizophrenic who broke into my home with the intention of murdering me, two days in a row. By the time she came home in September, divorce was already filed. She ended up getting pregnant by a man who was not the felon and had an abortion while living under my roof. Last December I was going to ask her if she wanted to try for children. We got Divorced 2 months to the day of what would have been our six-year anniversary.

I was struggling to find my own happiness in my pool of ever-worsening misery, getting lost in my apathy. I met a wonderful woman, Danielle, who shared my love for creation as well as agriculture. She has two wonderful daughters, and it sparked my interest back up in an old project of mine, which is making a book for children to learn about how they can make plants grow, and for very cheap, utilizing regenerative, recycling practices. I called this project “Frugal Foliage” for my project for Michigan State University, the school I am currently enrolled in for Agribusiness as well as Agricultural Operations. My Fiskars scissors are my most crucial tool in creating my Frugal Foliage creations. From towering seed banks, to creating miniature germination stations using cupcake pans from the Dollar Tree, my Fiskars scissors lend a helping hand wherever I need them.

It has taken quite a bit to get out of my depressive rut, and with the loving help and encouragement of my absolutely wonderful girlfriend, I am very close to putting the finishing touches on everything I will need for my book! As we have all no doubt learned during this terrible global pandemic, crafts and creativity is crucial to mental health. Additionally, food surety and self-sustainability have become topics of the limelight. More and more folks are wanting to grow their own food, for nutritious reasoning, as well as frugality. Personally, I was sketched out by any fresh produce early on in the pandemic and knew of several friends who would spray down and wash absolutely everything from the store, or Amazon, or anywhere really. Growing food from home became all the more important.

Where does one begin to grow food in a studio apartment? How can one possibly grow food even in a multi-bedroom apartment. I have had friends complain about only having room on their small porch of their apartment, because they are thinking of growing food in the 2D, not the 3D. With vertical agricultural practices, one can frugally grow quite a bit of food in a small area, by utilizing all of the volume of the place they are growing, rather than the simple square footage. The book I am writing will show folks how to grow nutritious, cut-and-come-again crops for a fraction of the total cost of the grocery store!

In closing, my hobby has brought back happiness to my life, in the form of productivity, having a schedule, as well as knowing I will be improving the lives of the many. In the Air Force, I was able to help save and improve lives of thousands of service members, as well as dependents. In the civilian sector, it has been very difficult to feel like I will ever have that level of impact again. Working on this book, has given me hope, and happiness, to be able to have global impact once again, and not just for service members, for people struggling all around the world, regardless of where they live and their wealth, as this book will be available for free for all who would wish to have it. The greatest personal happiness for me, is the make others happy, and thanks to my trust Fiskars scissors, and a loving girlfriend, I am able to make that happiness a reality!