People Who Have Made A Difference In My Life Part 3: Zech Wendt

Sometimes there is good support support that goes beyond the call of duty being willing to help, spend a lot of time, be a friend, be adventurous, and be a constant sounding board that will always be there for you, work through things, and intend to be your friend for life. That is rare to find but one of the best support I have ever had has been Zech Wendt. Zech was hired a year ago right after my last term of school started. He has been getting his hands dirty ever since and has been a great influence in my life immediately. He was the only male my whole life that I trusted immediately. He has seen me through not only trying to get through graduation without too much depression but almost immediately after graduation I started my hiking and camping trips with him, his wife Desta Murry, and Roberto who is one of my best friends and has been an even better friend since we did Partners In Policymaking together and has gone hiking and seeing movies every week. Zech and I have seen quite a few movies and have hiked numerous places going 3 hours or less from Boise which gives us a lot of leeway. He also has gotten me to get to hang out with his other participants and watch movies with them, go to the car wash, and laugh when we are at home with all of our various adventures. I have continued to appreciate my adventures with Zech and the committee and have continued to be a beacon in all of our lives and have continued to precede on all of our listening skills and have encouraged me to read self help books which I started with How To Win Friends and Influence People and have read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Principle Driven Leadership, and have started How To Stop Worrying and Start Living and Developing the Leader Within. Not only have I read on my own but we have watched numerous John Maxwell videos and he has continued to show me comedies, action movies, war movies, and some other genres and we have used hiking as a way to keep my depression and anxiety at bay going some place most every week except for weather related and his tooth infection. We have done overnight trips, trips to Idaho City and McCall and trips to hot springs and have continued to still even with all our coffee shops and other outings have time to work on some skills when we are together working with the car, with the hiking stick, and with other projects. We have continued to talk about various things in life and create shared meaning much further than just us being men, us being Christians, or us being adventure and movie buddies. He might have started working unconventionally recommended by someone who got let go later and meeting at a Vista Starbucks getting hired immediately but he has been a wonderful addition and has continued to become a stellar advocate for all of his participants and a great friend who has helped me along the way and been a hero. I am grateful that I hired him and will keep working with him until I graduate from the program in 2019 or 2020. Thanks for all that he has done and will continue to do. I am so proud of the Zech-Man.