In a series of articles, I am going to tell you about how I am blessed, that I have something that the richest people on earth don’t have enough money to buy, and I am going to provide advice that could one day save your life. You will also learn that sometimes things happen for a reason even though you might prefer if they did not happen that way and that it is better that things turned out the way they did.
You will also learn that by telling the world that you need help, you will be surprised how much love and help you receive – even from people and places that you would never imagine.
These articles are written in memory of my neighbours who were murdered, dedicated to my family and cousins who helped me, and for the benefit of anyone who is struggling with intense emotional pain.
For those people reading this who would say, “Seanán, you should not be telling people about this stuff. It could be used against you and be bad for your career”, I say, “Go fuck yourselves!” Telling the world that you are in pain and need help is what will get people through the pain. Not sharing and bottling up intense emotional pain is the worse thing that anyone can do. It is one of the reasons men die by suicide. I would not want to be in a career where I would have to bottle up my emotions and not be able to look after myself emotionally.
Employers would be keenly interested in a person who, when struck with a crisis, was able to dust themselves down, rebound, and take control of the situation to be able to improve themselves. These are skills that employers look for. Skills such as exerting control, connecting and networking with people, asking for help when you really need to ask for help, not being afraid to say no sometimes, setting out personal plans and targets and achieving them, finding opportunities when presented with rejections, and being able to communicate to explain difficult situations. Being able to do those things are very helpful in a career, not the opposite.
In December 2020, my world was turned upside down when my relationship suddenly ended. To say I wasn’t expecting it would be an understatement. It knocked the shit out of me. It left me an emotional and physical wreck. When life does this, you have two ways to react – you can be crushed, or you can learn from it and come back better. I chose to do the latter.
In the half year or so since the end of my relationship, I have reassessed my life, said no to things that were wasting my time, taken control of my health, laid down objectives to lose weight and smashed them, appeared in television ads, made new friends and contacts, created an amazing word processor for the Irish language, got qualified in a German examination despite having to do the exams in the freezing cold with the windows open, got a job where I inform more than a thousand journalists around the world of how the European Union is performing, and when life give me a pile of lemons, I went out and made lemonade – very enjoyable lemonade.
One of my favourite DJs, Avicii, died by suicide and I think I know what caused him to die that way. I shall reveal it by describing what happened to me in December.
All this during a pandemic when it was very difficult to mingle and have opportunities to meet people.
If you are curious to learn more, you are going to have to wait to read the articles to get all the sad, juicy, and ultimately, uplifting stories.