Helping others helps him

By Jessica Coleman
Staff Writer
    Jarrett Parker just wanted to help people like him. How that ended up putting him in a music video, he isn’t actually sure. He just knows that it feels good to help others, and it helps him recuperate both mentally and physically.
    Parker found assimilating back into a civilian way of life to be a challenge after spending 12 years in the Air Force, including a deployment in Iraq that left him with PTSD along with a heel spur that left him unable to run and limited his ability to do physical activities. 
    “I got diagnosed with post traumatic stress in the service from my experiences in Iraq,” said Parker, “So I decided to use my own experiences to go volunteer and help people.”
    He found solace helping other veterans in organizations like 22 Until None, The Military Veteran Peer Network, and more. He threw himself into helping other veterans, which in turn, helped him. He’d found peers who understood his experiences, and giving back helped him heal. He met people who had experiences similar to his, and goals he could help them reach.
    “It’s just doing good for people,” he said. “Its all about either awareness, or helping people cope, from someone who had been there – someone who knows.” 
    Parker, who has a natural gift for networking, found that he could help people not only with their military-related problems and challenges, but also with their aspirations.
    “I got back to my roots and all these people with nonprofits started asking me to do different projects across Texas,” he said. “That eventually rolled into acting and helping people with their businesses, helping them with social media, or I help them with modeling their clothing, or getting the word out, doing some advertising, whatever they need.”
    Just like that, Parker had found a niche. His place in the world, while not enlisted, was with people just like him.
    Most recently, he played a role in a music video advertising a device that could help veterans with their PTSD and TBI without medications. It is called In Light Wellness, and uses light to treat the brain. Parker played a soldier in the video for the theme song, Light it Up. 
    He doesn't know exactly what is on the horizon for him, but he knows he’s found his calling, which is to advocate and volunteer for veterans who need help, whatever that help may be.