What really motivates me is getting up each morning, thinking
about my wife, thinking about my son, and thinking about my
future. Hi, this is Theodore Bennett. This is my well-being story.
I was born and raised in the beautiful country of Jamaica, and I
moved to the U.S. in 2016 where I got married to my high school
sweetheart. We now how a two-year-old son. My wife, at the end of
the year, she starts off with a vision board. The number one goal
for me was to be healthy for 2020. I had financial goals. I had
spiritual goals. I had educational goals. So, I came into 2020 to
dominate.
However, something unexpected happened. Some unexpected changes
came. At the end of January, my supervisor came to me. She spoke
with me, and she was like, "Theo, your EOC scores are good." EOC
scores are you're knowledgeable. You are customer friendly with
the Medicare members.
My head was swelling, to be honest because my supe, she was
telling me that I was doing a great job, and then she said because
of my great job, I have been chosen to be a part of a specialized
team dealing with our group Medicare members. It seems exciting.
It was very exciting, but then it wasn't exciting after a time. It
was extremely overwhelming. It was a lot. It required so much of
me. It required critical thinking. It required beyond work
knowledge. It just required a lot of follow up.
At the same time while this new position was overwhelming, I was
trying to align myself, and then COVID-19. So, at the same time
while I'm thinking about adjusting myself to this new job, I'm
thinking about the health of my wife, my son, my parents. Is my
family going to be one of the statistics on the news? Am I going
to get a call that someone is in the hospital that is close to me?
I'm here trying to realign to work, and at the same time I'm
trying to figure it if my family's safe.
The icing on the cake came when there was the social uproar with
George Floyd's death. That was the next storm. So, imagine having
to try to realign to my new position and then having to next think
about my safety because of my race. Me and my wife, we grew up in
the Caribbean, and we're not used to racism. We're not used to
this, and we didn't even know that racism is something that still
exists in the U.S. We thought that something that's in
documentaries, in history material. We didn't know that it was
still hardcore present in the U.S. today.
I remember, my wife she was extremely overwhelmed by this, and we
just sat down and prayed. We prayed. We talked about it because
that's the only thing that can resolve it to some extent. I think
in that moment of breathing, thinking, and stepping back is where
we gain consciousness. That is when I was really able to realign
myself. How am I going to push past this? How am I going to move
forward?
I went back to that same vision board that I created. I still had
some goals that I wanted to achieve that could have been achieved
doing the short timeframe that I had for the rest of the year.
I remember during that time there was a position open in a new
department, and this is a position that is highly spoked about.
So, I was extremely excited when there was a new opening. I
applied for the position. They said that I did well in my
interview, and I was awarded a position on the Claims Research
Resolution Units team. So, I was extremely happy about that. One
goal was ticked off for 2020, and I was extremely happy about
that.
What I took away from 2020 is that change can come. Change is a
must, but you become strong when you're able to work around that
change. 2020 is the year of strength. It taught me how to be
strong, a better version of me to be honest.
