I found myself probably at the lowest point that I've been in a while, having lost my company,
having lost my mom a couple months earlier.
And in a place where I knew that I just needed new energy.
I decided to start looking up different places to teach.
I started looking up schools in Hawaii.
Luckily, St. Anthony's answered.
They said, "We love your energy.
We would love to have you.
However, can you be here in three days?"
I said, "Okay."
My name is JD Wilson.
I'm 38 years old.
I make $47,000 a year and I live in Kailua, Hawaii.
Mr. Wilson has to buy a class pet for third graders here.
What are you going to buy?
I don't know.
What do you think?
After graduating high school, I went to college in Pennsylvania, East Stroudsburg University.
After five years, I got a history degree.
After that, I decided to join the United States Air Force.
I was deployed twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
When people were like, "How was being deployed?"
I was like, I don't think I lost myself because I continue to be the person I was.
I hosted a talent show in Iraq.
So like that kind of shows you the vibe that I had as far as defending the country.
However, I knew I wasn't meant to do that for life.
I ended up knowing that I wanted to get in front of kids.
And teaching was the next obvious choice from that.
Military paid for my next teaching cert, which was a post baccalaureate program at Caldwell College.
Now Caldwell University.
Go Cougars.
I got my certificate and then I was on my way to teaching.
I was watching The Dribbler, who came in and he was dribbling his basketballs and he was playing
his 1997 Jock Jams.
And he's talking about bullying.
And I looked at him and I was like, I want to do what this guy is doing.
And I want to do it on a big level.
And I want to make it fun.
I want to make it interactive.
I want to make it about experiential learning.
So from that moment on, I resigned from teaching and I started Lead U.
We travel around to different schools and we host school assemblies, leadership workshops.
And even professional development days for teachers and focusing on the importance of
playfulness in the classroom.
Everyone usually walks away not only feeling empowered, but also identifying the person and the
leader that they are on the inside.
I called my family.
My landlord at the time said as long as we can get this place rented, you're good.
I packed a bag.
We cleared everything out of my apartment, I booked my plane ticket.
Somehow they put together a Covid-friendly luau goodbye for me, like all in that 72 hours and I
rolled out.
I'm not good with money.
And it is probably one of my biggest flaws and thing I need to work on the most.
So coming out to Hawaii, I had a little bit of savings from Lead U, which dwindled very quickly.
And my salary was cut directly in half.
So other than being a third grade teacher, I'm also the poster boy for Uber Eats.
Sometimes I spent up to $300, $350 a month, which is enormous and slightly embarrassing.
Lately, it feels as though I'm really living paycheck to paycheck and then some where I'm
trying to find other things to do like video editing, or Lead U virtual camps, or one on one
sessions that I can get some sort of income from to try to make it work.
When my car got here, I used it often.
I got to go to North Shore.
I was trying to learn how to surf and get better at that.
However, unfortunately, going back very recently, my car was stolen.
It was broken into and essentially just joyrided across the island and left there in a pool of
gasoline.
Everyone I've come in contact with has gone out of their way to make me feel a part of their Ohana or
feel a part of their lives.
So many teachers would make meals for me and things like that.
One of the key things for me and I guess it's anytime you travel is to always remind yourself
that you are a guest.
It's my place to listen a lot and try to learn as much as I can.
I feel as though I do have a minimalist lifestyle happening right now, not necessarily by design,
but it's kind of something that's crept up on me.
When I look around my apartment, I sleep on an air mattress that my best friend bought when he was
visiting here.
I have one cup.
His name is Cup.
So we use Cup every day.
There's something about having very simple things at home that really helped me emotionally and
mentally throughout today, I'm noticing.
So when I first came out here, I had between $10,000 and $11,000 in savings with the company.
Everyone was paid.
So that money was essentially left to keep the company alive or to keep myself alive, which is
kind of what ended up happening with it.
I feel as though I've treated my savings as a second checking account.
I wish that maybe I'd learned that at a younger age, just the importance of being mindful that
savings is savings.
The truth is, the biggest investment I'm making right now is in myself and in the bet that
hopefully Lead U comes back.
Student loans is something that I wish I had more education on heading into college.
I feel as though I didn't really understand what I was signing up for at the time and how much debt I
was going to be in when I was going through my college experience.
Sometimes it feels like just a number that I'm never going to fully tackle and that can be
overwhelming at times.
My mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after like years of missed diagnosis.
I believe it was like late 90s that this was happening.
My sisters were off at college and I was still in high school when she kind of transitioned from
having blurred vision to having trouble walking to walking with a cane and then eventually into a
wheelchair.
She was constantly going to different hospitals.
This guy's the best.
Oh, this person is the best.
And she was going to New York to Philadelphia.
Those bills started adding up I'm sure.
Not like I've ever seen them.
But I know that it was extremely expensive.
The cost of having to remodel a home so that it is handicap accessible or the cost of having to find
a van that is handicap accessible and making that work.
We did it without any of that.
My mom was so good about it.
I told them earlier that you make me wear exfoliating face masks at night for our date.
I actually did say that.
So what you're saying is that we're gonna do face masks tonight?
Perfect.
My main financial goals for the future are to establish a healthier budget, a more mindful
lifestyle for myself and to truly work on building savings for myself, and the company as well.
My plan right now is to stay out here for another year, for sure.
And hopefully, you know, see when schools start opening up their doors to assembly programs and
leadership workshops like Lead U.
And hopefully find an avenue to get back in front of kids and do our best to impact them in a
positive light.
The thing that I learned most from my father and my mother growing up financially was that it's
okay to put your passion over your profit sometimes.
So you have to do what you want to do in life.
And you have to make it happen on your own sometimes.
I believe in that, 100%.