NEWARK — For Jake Norotsky, the fatigue he faced as a member of the United States Army came to a head one night as he prepared his helicopter for a mission. He saw a deadly spider and thought that was it. He was done with the service.
But instead of leaving, he stepped on the spider, and that moment gave him much-needed strength.
“I realized in that moment that whatever life had in store for me, I could handle it,” Norotsky told students at Christ the Teacher Catholic School during a Catholic Schools Week visit on Jan. 27.
A military friend told him, “Make the day your spider. Crush this day.”
Norotsky returned to the United States and attended college in Alabama, studying aviation, and he became a pilot and a high school football coach. According to Norotsky, 42, he looked like he had everything together. But he was carrying his overseas experiences with him.
“I was, like, dying inside,” he told the students.
Norotsky had good stories from the military and others he kept hidden No one knew his true story. It was eating away at him. At some point, he said, you need to do something about this.
Around that time, the Wounded Warrior Project entered his life. The organization, founded in 2003, offers resources for mental health, career counseling and long-term rehabilitative care, along with advocacy efforts.
Norotsky became an ambassador for Wounded Warrior Project and travels around the country telling his story. A veteran, he told the students, is someone who makes a commitment to serve others, but they generally do not reach out for help. For WWP, that is part of the mission.
“What we do really, really well is we connect,” he said.
He told the story of David vs. Goliath, the biblical tale of a man who killed a giant with one shot from his slingshot. What many people don’t know, he said, was that David had four more stones, and although he didn’t need them, they were important.
“You need a stone for the battle that’s coming,” Norotsky said.
The stones mean that one is not going through life alone, according to Norotsky. Wounded Warrior Project finds those stones for veterans. He believes it is critical for the veterans’ stories to get out.
“When we share our story, we empower others to make it through.”
