Hope for The Holidays
Joshua Sooklal is feeling hopeful as we head into the holiday season and with good reason.
It’s a bit of a new experience for the U.S. Navy veteran who in the past year has mentally crawled out of a dark hole, returned to the city he loves, and has a vocation that aligns perfectly with his passion.
And he makes no bones about it: this hopefulness all can be directly attributed to his discovery of Hope For The Warriors and his eventual recruitment to work for the national veteran’s service organization.
“With HOPE, I can honestly say it has given me a reason to have hope, a reason to believe in the good things, a reason to understand life isn’t all about good or bad. Things fall in between,” said Sooklal, a Navy corpsman who suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries while deployed in the Middle East with the Marines.
Sooklal, who left active military service in 2016, had been struggling a bit a year ago and when his best friend committed suicide, the bottom dropped out for him.
“I had given up on people and veterans after my best friend passed away last year,” said Sooklal, who had been working with veterans through the VA until that point.
“The two years I had been working with veterans, I really became discouraged. I saw people going down a dark hole and then I went down that dark hole.”
It was so dark, Sooklal deserted the city he had always cherished, New York City, and fled south to Florida for a new job. “I’d given up on New York. I had given up and moved.”
Finding HOPE
A couple of years earlier, Sooklal had become familiar with Hope For The Warriors and even attended some of their events.
Along the way he became connected with Lee Bonar, HOPE’s director of military relations.
That connection with Bonar turned out to be invaluable to Sooklal’s turnaround.
Not long after his friend’s suicide, Sooklal said,
“Lee called me out of the blue. He was a support system, the best I ever had because he cared. We just talked, telling each other what’s going on in our lives.”
And there was another call fromBonar, sometime later, that was life changing. HOPE was looking for a new military member for his team and he felt Sooklal was a solid fit.
But Sooklal was reluctant at first.
“I got a call from Lee, and he told me about the job and at first, I told him I didn’t want it. But I slept on it, called some key friends, and talked. The next day I called Lee, formally applied, and got hired.”
Sooklal finds that peer-to-peer engagement with veterans is a two-way street.
“The official term for what I do would be peer support, but I really think I get more from them. We usually develop a relationship. I find out if they are in need, and HOPE has things to offer to help them.”
For example, Sooklal was recently working with a veteran who was making about $30,000 a year employed with a ferry system, struggling to get by. Sooklal found a way out and up for him.
“I knew I could vouch for him. I got him a job and now he just doubled his income. He was ecstatic.”
It is that kind of success with HOPE that gives him hope headed into the holiday season, and makes his future feel welcoming.
“HOPE has given me a new outlook on life and for that I will forever be grateful. It has made me hopeful on life.”
If you’re a veteran, military spouse or know of someone needing support, visit hopeforthewarriors.org.
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