Mental illness can be difficult to live with, people don’t want it, but our associated stigmas can make it more challenging. Help create change to stop the stigma; have those uncomfortable conversations and replace stereotypes with real human faces and the stories they share.

“Why didn’t she report it before?” “Why didn’t he come forward a long time ago, right after it happened?”

Victims don’t need to be further shamed for not reporting, yet we wonder why they are reluctant to speak up when so many others before them are ostracized and humiliated for doing just that.

Last year, I retired from the Army. Like countless men and women before me, I was a Soldier. I only enlisted for four years…how did it end being over two and a half decades?

Now it is time to take those first steps into an unknown future; I cannot wait to experience what life holds for me.