I lost my first job (military) after university. I had planned on that being my career, and I felt like I let down all my fellow classmates, my family, and my mentors. Instead of living with friends and doing what I spent four years preparing to do, I was starting from square one. I was upset, but I worked on my new start to cope.

• Health: I lost my job due to depression and an eating disorder. I saw a therapist, gained weight, and went to classes to learn how to workout and eat properly.

• Mental/emotional: I made it a point to visit a park every week. This was sometimes a small park with a soccer field and sometimes it was a hike in the Appalachians. Being in nature relaxes me.

• Career exploration: I got my personal trainer certification (I loved running and lifting), brushed up on some programming skills, and went to some job fairs. I started working part time as a personal trainer.

• New career: I worked as an intern for six months learning how to do various tasks for a lab. I worked the evenings as a personal trainer to help cover bills. My boss liked me and knew I didn’t know what to do in life. He gave me a job at the lab.

• Relationships: I ended a relationship with the man I loved. It sounds counterintuitive, but this was important for me to focus on starting a successful career. I stayed in touch with a few friends, had a bit of a rocky family dynamic, and started rock climbing and joining running groups in order to find new friends.

One thing I’ve learned that life is not a positive linear line. It’s more of a squiggly mess of a line. You can’t control your emotions, but you can control your actions and your response.