Portrait of US Issue #26: Morgan - Cleveland, OH
"A lot of my life I was kind of depressed and working with animals brought me out of that."
Animals play an important part in a lot of our lives and if you follow us on Instagram you know that we are no exception. We met up with Morgan at Edgewater Park in Cleveland when we were there in the summer of 2022. She works as a dogwalker in the Slavic Village neighborhood and brought her amazingly kind and calm dog to join in the portrait session. Listen to her story below about how working with dogs helped her on her mental health journey.
My name is Morgan, and we are at Edgewater Park.
I was born in Pennsylvania, and then I went to college for culinary arts. I moved out to Los Angeles, California. I moved all the way across the country, and I realized I wasn't meant to be in the kitchen.
I didn't have a job, and I was just looking on Indeed, and applying for almost anything. I always liked working with animals and I got hired at a place called Pasadena Paws. That job, it kind of changed my life. A lot of my life I was kind of depressed and working with animals brought me out of that.
When you work with dogs, you have to kind of forget about everything that's going on in your life because they pick up so much on your energy and how you feel. So if I was just, you know, angry about a fight I had with somebody or whatever they would know. If I'm going to work and I'm angry about that all day the dogs are going to pick up on that and they're going to frustrate me more.
They helped me learn how to just control my own emotions and just be better with it all.
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