Impact Story December 2018

Believe in Yourself: Achieve your Dreams

It has always been Josh’s dream to be a police officer, but having been diagnosed with ADHD at a very young age, many of his teachers had told him that he would never amount to anything in life. For most of his school career, he spent his time struggling to pay attention and battling the ongoing misconceptions that he was a “bad kid,” but there wasn’t much he could do about it. In fact, it wasn’t until seventh grade that things really started to turn around for him. He began to keep up his grades by doing his homework in class, eventually moving up into the more challenging classes throughout high school. He also put an immense amount of work into running for the school’s track team, something he not only earned his four-year varsity letter in, but found to be a safe haven from all the chaotic madness of his ADHD. 

“It’s kinda like the lines at Black Friday and how you want them to be. You want them to be single file, but they’re not because they’re all jumbled together. That’s what ADHD is like. You’ve got all these things trying to rush into your head at one time. You’ve just gotta find your thing that makes everything slow down… stop,” Josh states about his love for running and ADHD. 

Josh took a job at the Towpath Trail YMCA in June of 2017 working at the Welcome Center and making sure that every member leaves the Y with a smile. And since working here, he has become a more sociable, friendly person, which coincides with his life motto of, “I won’t be serious unless it’s called for.” He states that he has become a lot happier since being hired here just a year and a half ago and that he was not who he is today; he has found himself in the time he has spent here at the Y, both inside and outside of work. To him, the Y is more than just a gym. The Y is family. He loves the staff he works with and the members who come in every day for a variety of reasons. It is here where he has made life long memories and friendships. In fact, just ten months ago, he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a policeman during one of his shifts at the Y. His coworker, Dave, had given him the advice that would then change the direction of his future. 

“You know, if it’s something you really love then go do it. Go make your dreams happen. You can’t always sit around and expect your dreams to come true if you don’t work for them,” Dave said.

It wasn’t until that very moment that Josh seriously started dedicating his time towards working out at the Y, his initial goal to build muscle and meet the requirements to be accepted into the Akron Police Academy. But ultimately, he just wanted to be able to look in the mirror and like what he saw. He began to use the weight room and found that he had a love for his self-made chest workout and that he used to motivate him throughout the weeks. 

The YMCA has always been a part of Josh’s life, as he learned to swim, practice karate, and play basketball as a child at the Alliance Family YMCA, but he will always hold a special place in his heart for the Towpath Trail Y that helped him to reach his dreams of becoming the person he truly wanted to be.  Josh advises us all to do the things we’ve always wanted to do when we start making positive changes in our lives. With so many opportunities to take, places to go, and people to meet, we can’t be happy if we’re doing something that we don’t like. Overall, his dad has been a huge motivator in his life, getting him to work harder to accomplish his goals and always providing the positive reinforcement he needed to get to where he is today. That, and of course, seeing all of the improvements he has made towards becoming a police officer and realizing that it will be him in that uniform soon enough. 

Josh’s favorite quote, one that keeps him motivated and moving forward, is from the book, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand that states, “A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.” And certainly, that has proven true throughout his life and his story. He concludes, 

“Know that hard work pays off, being who you are, who you wanna be, it’s the most important thing. God made everyone who he wanted them to be and it’s your choice whether you want to be the person he wants you to be or not. I say be yourself, go for your dreams, work hard at them. Don’t sit around and not do something. Just work hard and be who you want to be. Just because someone says something about you doesn’t mean that that is you, unless you decide that the person they’re talking about is, in fact, you. Which it wasn’t me. I wasn’t a bad kid. I wasn’t the ADHD – you know, my ADHD didn’t define who I was. I defined who I am.”

2 Chronicles 15:7
But as for you, be strong and do not give up,
For your work will be rewarded.

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Written by Emma Stefanick

For further inquiries or to submit your own story, please contact us at estefanick@WestStarkY.org