Lisa is a mother of three children and works three jobs in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. She has ADD, Depression, and Anxiety, and has been working hard over the last nine years to manage her mental and emotional wellbeing.

“The biggest thing I’m working on is self-esteem,” she explains. “I think that’s probably a pretty common thing with people with ADD too, depression tends to be a pretty secondary symptom and it does erode your self-esteem. I didn’t find out until I was in my 20’s that I had ADD, I always just thought I was just lazy, stupid, crazy. [. . .] So trying to unlearn that type of thinking has been probably one of my biggest challenges.”

Lisa needed to brush up on her computer skills to help maintain her employment. She had previously participated in Neil Squire’s Distance Computer Comfort program, so she reached out and enrolled in the Digital Jumpstart program.

Through Digital Jumpstart, Lisa received a new laptop, keyboard, mouse, and a riser. She began lessons with program coordinator Gordon Watt, on topics including file management, computer maintenance, Microsoft Word, Google Lens, and Google searching.

“I was kind of surprised, Gordon was just reviewing Google searches with me, and I thought I could Google,” she says, noting that she learned how to refine her searches, to find things like events on specific days. “That was amazing.”

Her favourite moments, however, were in learning how to use Microsoft PowerPoint to turn presentations into videos. She used the skills she learned to make a video for her son’s birthday, chipping away a little bit each week, transferring photos from her phone and on Google Drive, making all the details perfect.

On Thanksgiving, she connected her laptop to the TV through an HDMI cable — something she learned she could do from Gordon — and showed the video to her son.

“My son loved it, like the look on his face was better than any gift I gave him,” she says. “It felt good.”

Lisa appreciated Gordon’s teaching style, and enjoyed her time in Digital Jumpstart.

“Gordon is absolutely amazing, [. . .] I really appreciated his help and his humour,” she says. “That made it easier to stay awake when I was super tired and having a hard time focusing, and he always keeps everything positive and has a little humourous twist on things.

“I really do appreciate the help,” she continues. “Thank you is all I’m trying to say.”