Victor, a visual artist and graphic designer, shares a vulnerable and candid account of being roughly four months into recovery from addiction and depression, describing how art serves as his primary mode of emotional communication. He reflects on the isolating nature of his mental health struggles and expresses genuine gratitude for the communal atmosphere of the SYT event, noting that being surrounded by people feels like family to him.
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Transcript
[00:55:04] way to start the show that was that was funny that was yeah it was funny okay all right yeah
[00:55:13] so we got a show on our hands I see yes get some laughs in you know I like that I like that
[00:55:19] and we also have some special gifts for anyone who steps up on the stage to speak I know it is you
[00:55:26] know kind of intimidating to be over here speaking you hear my voice crack it in and out that’s me
[00:55:31] holding the microphone wrong my bad um but yeah so some giveaways so when you get up here to speak
[00:55:37] make sure you get a giveaway for being a part of this all right so coming to the stage coming to
[00:55:45] the stage I want y’all to give it up for Victor one dude give it up for him y’all
[00:55:49] I don’t have any joke this will be actually kind of depressing
[00:56:06] but uh yeah this is uh it’s kind of very new for me I would say about um kind of four months
[00:56:17] in the process of trying to overcome
[00:56:19] addiction depression a bunch of other sort of mental health issues and
[00:56:26] it’s kind of really great for me to be here just to be with a big group of people
[00:56:33] I mean one thing I hear a lot is what we all need is connections to other people that’s what
[00:56:39] makes us human beings being able to interact with each other and actually we’re nervous being up here
[00:56:46] um
[00:56:48] but uh
[00:56:49] part of the reason I really I wanted to sort of I’m an artist visual artist I wanted to
[00:56:54] um kind of make some of my people here have some on display over there and do the fundraising
[00:57:00] and I was thinking to myself um I mean art is basically communication like why am I so nervous
[00:57:06] standing up here and speaking to you when I’m so comfortable making various art points
[00:57:12] I mean that’s pretty much what it is um part of things I do is uh design work by graphic designer
[00:57:19] which is
[00:57:19] um pretty straightforward in a way it’s kind of like um you know you have a task someone comes
[00:57:25] and eat a restaurant and you’re like okay well I can do this or that then there’s another piece
[00:57:31] where it’s art or something that I completely created and to me I find that to be a very um
[00:57:37] like organic and beautiful way to communicate because often you have an emotion and you don’t
[00:57:43] really know how to communicate it in words and uh one of the most beautiful things I like doing is
[00:57:49] is I make something with a particular thought in mind and someone else will often find the piece
[00:57:57] that I think is the ugliest and they’ll be like whoa that’s great that reminds me of this and that
[00:58:03] and they get something so much more powerful than you and I intended and I myself don’t even know
[00:58:09] why I particularly came up with that so um I just wanted to it’s been a while since I had a chance
[00:58:15] to uh just see a bunch of artwork seeing people getting together and creating events
[00:58:19] um just coming here with uh just friends and people that I’ve met you’re asking not to really
[00:58:25] come with uh like a family to me so um I’m often very isolated I don’t really like to go out too
[00:58:31] much so coming out here and getting out of my own skin and just trying to see how why I’ve been
[00:58:38] here for like days and yeah I’m really happy to see all of you
[00:58:49] hey give it a fan one more time y’all give it up