"There's always another level up. There's always another ascension. More grace, more light, more generosity, more compassion, more to shed, more to grow."
-Elizabeth Gilbert
We watch our students ascend on their climb to a life of their own. It is an honor for each of us, as staff, to be witness to the incredible heights each student steps into in their own time.
Quite often, it is a process. It requires tenacity, compassion, and growth to be part of a chosen route to their own unique life path.
No two students have been alike. No two paths have exactly lined up and, yet, we have seen many of our students ascend the difficulties that kept them stuck. It's the energy we need to do what we do. Just as each student shows up day after day, so too do the people here to support them, the people holding the rope, so to speak, as journeys to the top are made.
Although we are here to be that support, the work truly belongs to each human being that walks through our doors to make their own way, pick their own route, find their own hand and footholds on their personal journey to success. Sometimes it feels like this and each student has to get back up, dust themselves off, and make the climb again.
It is the generosity of each spirit, the compassion of the therapeutic community we create together, that keeps them making progress of their own. Students are allowed the room to let go, to fall, to succeed, to fail, and to try again everyday surrounded with people who support them, both their peers and the Echo staff. Some staff have even learned to climb by making ourselves vulnerable while we ask the students to do the same. We work together. We climb together. We fall together. We get back up. Together.