We were lucky to catch up with Natalia Lazo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Natalia , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear stories from your time in school/training/etc.
Attending trainings are a normal part of most jobs. Even though I am in the business of wellness and positivity, I have plenty of rough mornings where my motivation isn’t at its peak. I was having a day like this recently on a day I was scheduled to attend a work training. The commute would double my morning travel time, and the traffic made my sleepy mood even more aggravated. To my delight, the training taught me a lesson that I will carry into every future day on the job as well as in my personal life. During the training, we completed a scenario exercise. The speaker stood with the scenario printed on a card attached to strings. Each string represented a different entity such as parents, friends, school counselor, and one to represent someone of my job title. We all watched intently as the scenario was read of someone seeking mental support by approaching each of these resources, only for them to be turned away one by one by each entity, with each person downplaying the person’s situation despite them being in dire need. To further illustrate the story, as each agency turned away the student, they would also cut the string attached to the scenario card with scissors, literally cutting ties with everyone the person believed was in their corner. Finally, the person in the scenario approaches the person with my job title. It demonstrated to me that even on days when I feel swamped, I could be talking to someone who is already feeling defeated after exhausting other resources and options. I would never want to contribute to someone feeling that hopeless. The exercise will serve as a reminder to overcome any emotional battles in the moment someone comes to me for help, because I could be their last hope. I will transfer this mentality into my personal life and trickle it into my future poetry because it is a necessary reminder for us all to be more empathetic.
Natalia , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Natalia Lazo and I was born and raised in Southern California. I began writing at 8 years old as an outlet after enduring childhood trauma. I continued to write throughout my upbringing and my hope is that my poetry can provide hope to other people like me. I released my first book in 2020, a collection of poetry called SOARING. I currently work as a health educator that specializes in mental health, sexual health, and substance abuse prevention. Since Soaring, I have also released an e-Version of the book and the edition of Soaring currently available includes additional affirmations that were not included in the initial release.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
During my years of college and grad school, I had no idea where my career would end up taking me, but I entered the field of maternal and child health with pizzazz and tenacity. I anticipated making countless connections and helping my community one family at a time, however I quickly learned about the drawbacks of an emotionally demanding job when I was met with burnout and vicarious trauma. Listening to other people’s stories and working to aid them often reminded me of where I came from and the obstacles I have overcome too. With so many emotions resurfacing, I ultimately realized that my career could intertwine with my first love: writing. Writing has always been my go-to creative outlet, and scribbling out new lines that would brew inside of me was such a release at the end of a long day. Writing it out and then reading over my work would help me process what I went through. Publicizing those thoughts and then sharing them publicly gave me a sense of community and togetherness born out of the most vulnerable moments. As I grew personally as a young woman, I also felt myself growing confidence as a public health professional. In the long run, I would absolutely choose the same profession and specialty because it taught me how to grow roses in concrete.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson that I had to unlearn was that anger is not a first emotion, it is a secondary emotion. This was an important lesson for me to learn as I embarked on my career in the public health space. I had gone through most of my life misunderstanding how to read people’s emotions. I assumed that if people were being mean, that was just their character. I would later understand that there is usually some kind of hurt underneath the surface. Learning how to approach people with a trauma informed lens would prove helpful when practicing with clients. Everybody is going through something and everyone has a story. This lesson on anger would also help me to make sense of people and events of my life, which would in turn enhance the storytelling of my writing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nataliacamillelazo.com
- Instagram: wzrdnatalia
Image Credits
Sean-Michael Ryan