Up until recently, Cory Oviatt was struggling with the direction of his life. “I was just being kind of lost,” Cory said, “kind of homeless and not really giving a crap … I was raised in an upper middle class home, so it’s not that I didn’t know how to take care of myself. I just didn’t.”
With just a little bit of support, Cory’s life changed completely. “My friend helped me get sober,” Cory said, “placed some value in me and helped me as a person, regardless of my situation. That helped me place value in me, and I got cleaned up and quit drinking and [smoking marijuana].”
Cory credits this friend with getting him to a luau sponsored by Standing Against Foreclosure and Evictions (safe), where he said he met longtime Real Change advocate Susan Russell. “She was like, ‘Yeah, come down on Monday.’ So I came down Monday, and here I am. The rest is history.”
Having a job and a source of revenue is vital to Cory supporting himself. “Due to a diagnosis of bipolar [disorder],” he said, “I’ve been unable to work because I’ve been put on abd [Aged, Blind and Disabled cash program], so Real Change has been influential.”
Selling papers in Issaquah outside of PCC in Pickering Place, Cory feels extremely at home. “It’s a great place,” he said. “I love it!” He was raised in Edmonds, which he says has a similar demographic. “It’s quiet, it’s nice and it’s scenic. The aesthetics are great and the people are nice … It’s not too uncommon to have people walk by and hand me $5 or $10 and say ‘Keep the paper,’ that happens four or five times a week. I’d like to sell like 15 papers on top of that, but it’ll come in time.”
Cory finished this sentence with a chuckle, as he did many others. Although he has a great sense of humor (even opening his interview with a reference to Spaceballs), he does not take his words lightly. After the interview had officially finished, Cory asked whether Real Change would print everything he said.
What he wanted, was to make sure that everything came out not necessarily favorable to him, but truthful.
The dark times are “a part of my life,” said Cory. “They’re a part of my story.”