Wish Dish | Share Your Story

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After the Dish: Josh Jones

(Written by Josh Jones)

I am so thankful that Bryan Wish for asking me to write Striking Out Adversity.

However, I did not feel that comfortable with writing about my past at first. I say this because I am not usually that open of a person when it comes to my personal life. I decided to finally write my story because he convinced me that it would impact and inspire so many people. My passion is to help and motivate others, so the decision to write was then a no brainer. This decision ended up being one that I would not forget.

It took me two weeks to actually start writing my story of my learning disabilities and social insecurities growing up.

The reason for this was myself thinking too much about what people would think of me. One night I just sucked it up and thought of who would get impacted by it. So I went to the library at the University of Georgia, got a pen and paper, and wrote out 14 pages worth of my story. I was in the library for 6 hours.

I then went home and wrote it all out on my computer. Then I sent it to Bryan to edit it. Oh how there was so much editing. For about a month myself, Bryan, and his grandfather edited my story. I kept on saying things I wanted to add or take out. Bryan kept on telling me not to care what people thought and just write my story.

We ended up taking my story from fourteen pages to seven after a month of shortening. This process taught me to write in a way that is short and to the point and keens the audience’s interest. It also taught me how to make a story flow and input major points that will keep the reader emotionally attached. One of mine was when I was told in elementary school that I would be lucky to ever graduate high school and never be able to attend college because of my severe dyslexia.

The first week I posted my story to the Wish Dish was so worth the all the hard work and second-guessing.

I had over 80 people like it on Facebook and over 40 people comment on it. The reactions were all amazing. Guys would text me and say how much more they respected me and how I inspire them to work harder. Women would comment and text me saying they cried and had no idea because I never showed what I dealt with externally.

For a week, all the people I knew on social media blew up my phone. Then my employees from the Atlanta Braves staff would text me and message me saying how much they respected me. It did not stop there. The next week my story went on Linkdln. This is when the ticket sales manager Dan Eanes of the Atlanta Braves read it and sent it off to the rest of the Braves front office. Dan emailed me directly after and told me how impressed he was of me and would have never known about the struggles I went through and still did on a daily basis.

During the next home stand for the Atlanta Braves, I had over a handful of full-time workers come up to me and expressed their gratitude toward me for writing my story. It was a surreal week for me. I then graduated from the University of Georgia a month later and kept working has a supervisor for the Braves.

A month after graduation, two ticket sales trainee spots came open because two guys were hired full time. I then applied for one of the spots and gratefully received the job. I don’t know if I would be in the situation that I am not if it wasn’t for putting my story on the Wish Dish.

I believe this website helped me put my name over the edge to distinguish myself from others. What Bryan has done by creating this website is provide a tool to inspire and connect others. I pay due diligence to him for what he has done for me.

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After the Dish: Josh Jones

(Written by Josh Jones)

It took me two weeks to actually start writing my story of my learning disabilities and social insecurities growing up.

The first week I posted my story to the Wish Dish was so worth the all the hard work and second-guessing.

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