From Resignation to Renewal: Rewriting the Narrative of What’s Possible

What happens when you’re told — directly or indirectly — that the life you want isn’t meant for you?

In our newest episode of Leading With Lived Experience, AmeriCorps VISTA and Think Tank team member Brian Dobyns opens up about growing up on the edge of assistance — where his family made “just a little too much” to qualify for help, yet never quite enough to move forward.

This episode, titled From Resignation to Renewal, explores how that in-between reality shapes your sense of what’s possible. Brian shares how rejection — not just from systems, but sometimes from well-meaning family or teachers — slowly builds up into a mindset that says: Don’t try. It won’t work. It’s not for people like you.

That’s the heart of the fatalistic poverty narrative — the belief that the system is unchangeable, that struggle is inevitable, and that hope is naïve.

But that’s not where Brian’s story ends.

He walks us through how that mindset was challenged, chipped away by encouragement, mental health support, and the slow accumulation of small wins. He found people — and eventually became one — who believed in something better. And that’s what “renewal” looks like: not a single breakthrough, but a quiet return to possibility, one choice at a time.

Why This Story Matters

So many people live under the weight of low expectations — not just from others, but from within. When we talk about poverty, we often overlook the internal narratives people carry. And we underestimate the power of belief, encouragement, and access to opportunity.

This episode reminds us: Sometimes, the most powerful thing we can offer someone isn’t a solution. It is belief in them.

🎧 Listen to “From Resignation to Renewal” now and reflect on how we can move beyond fatalism — toward futures that are both imagined and achievable.