How I Turned Lemons into Lemonade

By Jacques Cormier (published as “Anonymous”) - Wilkinson

I have wanted to write “my story” for several years.  And now the opportunity presented itself to me.  So here is my story that I like to call “How I Turned Lemons Into Lemonade”.  I hope you enjoy it.

I grew up going to school, playing sports and hoping to pursue a medical career eventually to become a doctor.  I loved school, studied hard and enjoyed playing many different team sports, including Varsity basketball, Varsity volleyball and Varsity table-tennis.  I excelled at school, graduating top of my Grade 12 class and in Grade 13, received an Ontario Scholarship.  I had just finished 1st year in pre-med when tragedy struck.

I had a CAR ACCIDENT ended up in HOSPITAL fell into a 2-WEEK COMA and that was the END OF MY DREAMS … or so I thought.

For a long time, I was in and out of hospitals as a result of the massive trauma I suffered only to find myself in the mental health system. With the help of medical professionals, my family, my friends, my teachers and my workers, I was able to start to work towards my recovery. This was a process that spanned several years and as I am learning, is an on-going endeavour.

Eventually, through many different referrals and some trials and errors, I got connected to Wilkinson. That was 15 years ago. They helped me by providing a worker and getting me settled into housing.  It took time and a few moves to different houses until I was offered the chance to move into a brand new building with my own independent apartment.

That’s when everything changed. I now had my own apartment but I had never lived on my own before and found it difficult at first. Truthfully, it took a couple of years to totally adjust.  But the great thing was, that even though I was living on my own, I found out that I really wasn’t alone. Because of all of the support I had received in the past, and the encouragement from everyone, I was able to put all the life skills I had learned into practice – things like budgeting, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, paying bills and everything that has anything to do with everyday life.

I was encouraged to go back to school and now that I was in a quiet, stable and supportive environment, I felt that I could pursue a career in the medical field once again. That’s when I realized that this wasn’t the end of my dreams and started looking at other options. And that’s when a career as a Pharmacy Technician started to appeal to me.

After a couple of years of hard work, I was able to graduate Summa Cum Laude (with highest honours and top of my class.) After an intense job search, I was able to try out a position at a local pharmacy for a couple of weeks as a trainee, and although the job didn’t work out, I learned the job skills necessary for me to attain a position in the future with a different pharmacy.

In the meantime, while I continue my job search, I also have a very full life. I have a long-term girlfriend who supports me with her love. We spend weekends in the winter doing winter sports, take short vacations, and cook gourmet meals for each other and look to the future together. I also play on a baseball team for the Progress Place Progressors as well as teach French classes and play drums in a band.

Currently, I am employed as a private contractor for LOFT Community Services working as a cleaner. Because, you see, as a young man, when the deck was stacked against me, I was trained as a professional cleaner. I didn’t know at that time, that I would be able to use these skills in another environment sometime in my future. At the time, I thought I would spend my entire life in the hospital but with all the amazing supports I have received in my life I have been able to turn lemons into lemonade.

For anyone reading this story, never give up hope, for you too can achieve your goals.

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