The Day We Broke Sticks: What It Takes to Wake Up

Inviting The Courage to See, Then Quit What’s Not Working

Before the last semester of this school year, I took a young man to the woods and handed him a stick.

Not for ceremony.
Not for metaphor.
For breaking.

He was stuck—depressed, anxious, and spending thousands of dollars on a college experience that was slowly draining the life out of him. Wasting time, energy, and potential. No clarity. No direction. No path.

So I challenged him:
“If this is what college looks like for you right now, stop. Something’s got to shift.”

He didn’t need more advice.
He needed to feel.
To move.
To remember what it means to be alive.

At first, he could barely swing the stick.
It was tentative. Careful. Disconnected.

By the end, he was roaring. Thrashing. Breaking sticks.
Letting loose a primal scream that hadn’t been heard in years.
He came alive.

Today, we went back.

He asked for it.
He’s been showing up in a new way. Engaging.

Claiming his life as his own.
Today wasn’t about fixing anything.

It was about honoring the shift—and continuing the practice.

Because this is what real transformation looks like.
Not tidy. Not linear.
But embodied. Raw. Intentional.

There’s a whole generation of young people like him.
Hungry for something real.
And if we don’t give them spaces to break open, to move their bodies, to feel their power, to remember who they are…

They’ll keep drifting. Or worse, disappearing.

This is what Find Your Path is here to interrupt.
A place to wake up.
A path to engage.
A chance to live fully—with presence, passion, and purpose.

Time to step into, not away from, our lives.