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Ryan Reich | Episode 722
Ryan Reich was on The Potters Cast back in 2018. A few weeks ago on February 12th, Ryan’s family home burst into flames. Gratefully, everyone got out safely, but they lost everything. Today we talk to Ryan to hear his story. Amazingly, Ryan has an amazing attitude.
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When tragedy hits is it okay to stop doing everything and just absorb the trauma of it all?
Yeah, to a certain degree but at the same time we, I mean me and my wife, we still had our kids and our dogs and we still had our jobs so as much as we were caught up in the tragedy there was still a part of it was like, life has to go on. So the first couple of weeks were really hard because we were in a Residence Inn. So it was like a hotel with a little small kitchen but our two big dogs are both full-size dogs and two crazy little boys and we had just gone through all this stuff…the first week was very primal in a way. It was very much like food, clothing, shelter. We need our basics. It happened early in the morning by 12 or so a neighbor had given us a ride to the rental car place, my wife went to Target, as much as it was, Oh this is a tragedy and traumatic. In the moment you have to just be parents and take care of our kids.
They say laughter is good medicine. When was the first time you were able to start laughing again after the fire?
I don’t know, if you know me I have a pretty good sense of humor. So I don’t know if I can pinpoint a specific time like that, but I remember one of the first couple of nights just sitting there hysterically cracking up just thinking, This is our life. This is our story. For a very long time I am going to be identified as the guy whose house caught on fire. Where I work I am the teacher whose house caught on fire. It’s been almost 7 weeks I guess, and still whenever I go out of my classroom everyone who stops me asks me, How’s it going? That’s who I am. That’s my identity. The guy whose house caught on fire. But it is what it is. It’s my story and my identify.
How long did you feel that you were in shock? How long did it take for the shock to wear off and the weight of it fall on you?
Probably the first night, I think. After we were in a hotel and the kids were asleep. You know, the shock and the weight were pretty heavy for while. Tat’s exactly what me and my wife would say, This is like heavy. The only way to describe it it is like a heavy weight, a heavy feeling of this being a big weight on our shoulders.
You know the comments are all love, but it’s burdensome. So how do you keep that balance of being able to still lovingly respond to an act of love of an inquiry but becomes a weighty inquiry?
Well, I think it’s an on-going process still so it’s kind of an evolving story. It’s a story that keeps getting sentences added to it and paragraphs added to it. I don’t know, I guess it’s at this point I am still relatively isolated at work for the most part. I probably leave my classroom like once a week to go venture onto campus. Otherwise I pretty much go from my car to the classroom. We are not really socializing that much. I don’t really see other people besides my kids and my wife because of everything going on. But definitely at work is when I get the most and I don’t feel the burden yet of it.
Is it odd to you to have complete strangers giving to you?
Yeah. That’s what I think makes me feel very humble and very grateful, just random people who I have never met. It’s cheesy but the Instagram ceramic community, that’s a strong group of people that are very kind. A lot of people who we mutually follow each other, they were very generous. And other people I have never met, the followed me, it spreads like wildfire. The posts and sharing it on the stories. A lot of people just reached our and saw the video, it was pretty powerful . Those are some serious flames. That was a serious fire. I can only imagine people are putting themselves in my position and be like, What would I feel if I was going through that?
Are you still discovering things that you need help with?
I don’t know. Financially we are doing okay because of the Go Fund Me thing. And our insurance fronted us some of the money for our personal property payout. So financially we are good but we haven’t touched the re-building of our house. They just finished inventorying stuff and they are demoing the house right now. But I don’t really know what I need. We have settled into a rental house now and we are still going to work every day and I am still taking care of my kids. It has kind of gone back to a somewhat of a normal, we just have to wait, we have this other project we have to do. One inch at a time, one step at a time.
Everybody asks, How can I help? How do you typically respond to that?
I don’t know. How can I help? I think the biggest help we got at the beginning was the financial help. Because it was the security…I don’t know how many times we had to go to Target or Marshalls or Home Depot and it would be like, Oh 200 dollars. Oh 300 dollars. Oh, 400 dollars. How did we just spend 400 dollars at Target? When you have to buy everything again it adds up fast. So financially, that’s kind of thing that has helped out a lot. I have had a few people send me mugs, which I appreciate because I have been eating off of rental bowls and rental cups and that kind of stuff. I am making a dinnerware set right now that I will be glazing soon. So I don’t know how people can help. I wish I had a better answer.
Book
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Contact
Instagram: @ryanreichceramics