We recently connected with Makenna Ruddy and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Makenna, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
As someone who grew up with severe anxiety and depression as it runs in my family, school and camp was always very difficult for me. I was always very bullied starting at the age of around 8. I was always bullied about my personality and physical attributes, I was generally overweight as a child and the two words I always heard on a daily basis for 15 years straight was “fat” and “ugly” followed by laughter. Continuously I had unwanted thoughts and feelings and developed severe anxiety and depression.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I had a hard time getting through high school, and in the summer of 2009, I decided I needed to make a lifestyle change and become healthier, physically and emotionally so I started to eat better and exercised every day. A huge passion of mine is that I love making others laugh and smile and I wanted to create this campaign to make the world smile by making it a better place as I was truly inspired by Kind Campaign as I know how much it hurts to be called names, to be threatened and to feel like you are all alone. In September 2010, I went to Seneca College in Toronto, and graduated in June 2013 with a Social Service Worker Diploma. Within those 3 years I had taken classes such as sociology, interpersonal communications, diversity, awareness & practice, social problems, group dynamics, human development, principles of practice, interviewing, community studies, families in change, case co-ordination, advocacy strategies, supportive counselling, child welfare, community practice, social policies & integrative seminars.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Growing up it has been hard to identify any struggles such as anxiety and mental health. As part of this journey, it has required myself to be vulnerable, empathetic and kind to help others and to speak in front of large crowds. It has been incredibly difficult to get over the anxiety of speaking in front of others which is essential to maintaining an organization and creating success for others. During this, I have been able to put my anxiety aside to help people and to try to combat the feeling of caring what others think of me as it says much more about the other person than it does your own self.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I love collaborating with other people and organizations to help spread kindness and to help those “live their dream.” I always make sure to keep in touch with clients with annual and semi-annual emails and connections. I try to send out various monthly to yearly update emails on what each month or year has accomplished to let clients know what we have been up to and what we are still passionate about. I also try to connect with new clients but at the same time staying in touch with older clients has allowed me to connect with newer clients at the same time from different staffing or location changes from schools and shelters. Every Spring and Fall I connect with the same schools and shelters to offer free programs such as anti-bullying assemblies and donation services. Other organizations are welcomed to contact us through our website or social media platforms.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yourdreamcampaign.com
- Instagram: @liveyourdreamcampaign / @makenna.ruddy
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/liveyourdreamcampaign
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/makennaruddy
- Twitter: @liveyourdreamc
