Pete? Who the Fuck is Pete?

I don’t know who I am. I’ve been all sorts of things. What do you want? A work history? You want me to run down all the crap I’ve gone through? I don’t know. I guess with the help of the Wife, Jen, we’ll find out. 

Jen - When you first watched the presentation about the Freedom Run and Clearview Works, what did you think? 

Pete - It sounded intriguing, it had a good potential to help people. Not to be like the outsider, but when you (Jen) wanted to do it, I’d be involved too. I got into this not really knowing what I was getting into, but ended up really liking the people that I’m with. I’m not generally a big volunteer guy, but this is something that I feel like I’m getting into the swing of things. 

Jen -  How do you feel about the social media aspect, being the voice on Facebook and Bluesky and wherever else we go? 

Pete - It’s not that difficult, the biggest problems I have is with my executive dysfunction and being able to post on time. Thanks to Kevin’s constant poking and prodding, the posts get made. Putting together a blurb for the blog posts are a little tricky but I get help. Social Media is like another form of customer service and I can do that with my eyes closed. The trick is to know the best words to catch people’s attention and have the algorithm catch it. 

What else do you want to know, this is a ‘who the fuck is Pete’, right? 

Jen - What is your perspective on healing trauma? 

Pete - You can’t do it alone. No, that’s not right, not everyone can do it alone. A lot of us need help. The trouble is finding those on the outside who you can trust and open up to, right? I’m lucky. I have you (Jen) who supports me in everything I do… to a point. I mean, it would be fair to say that if it wasn’t for you (Jen) I wouldn’t even be here anymore. Through you (Jen) I went to programs like the partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient which really helped. Through you (Jen) I met Lalenya and them and they’ve helped as well. They’re a great group of people. 

Jen - You’ve gone through a lot of traditional healing methods. Some have helped more than others. What kinds of healing methods do you want to see Clearview Works try to make accessible? 

Pete - I mean this is probably a ways down the road, because we need specific people to make it happen, but different support groups for different things so people can come together so they know they’re not alone. We have a Discord server for Clearview Works, by the way https://discord.gg/a7PVXXnx so, you know if you’re reading this and want to talk or whatever, you can drop us a line through Discord, or Bluesky, or Facebook, or even email. 

Jen - In my post, I brought up your trying to find a way to be able to work again. Want to talk about that? 

Pete - Sure. To me, work has never been a positive experience. I grew up getting told that your dreams are dumb and just go do a job. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as you’re making money. So I don’t even know how many different jobs I’ve gone  through, how many times I’ve said out loud that I want to follow my dreams and gave up on it because of the voices in the back of my head that tell me that it won’t work, you can’t live off of dreams. 

A couple years ago, a significant event in my life happened that shattered everything in my brain. Not really, I’m not insane, you know what I’m saying right? I’m trying to work out how to follow a dream and work and live at the same time. Following my dreams is a viable option to life. I want to be a writer, actor, YouTuber, Twitch streamer, all things I can do with Clearview Works. Overall, I’m thankful for everyone in the group for being so kind and patient with me as I go through troubles every once in a while. Everyone here isn’t just talking the talk, they’re walking the walk too. So, there you go.