I grew-up watching storms from the comfort of our front porch and only felt threatened when I was up on the ridge out in the open. The beginning of my adult life, I was living up on the ridge and really dreading the coming of a storm. Then one unfateful day we went for a drive and discovered that we drove by something that I had always wanted to avoid. From that day forward, I vowed to never live in an area where I had to deal with severe storms. Tricky I know, as you can’t control the weather. When we moved here, dealing with forest fires wasn’t as bad; however, it was nerve wrecking as there was really nothing that you could do to help prevent the fire from destroying someone's house. Then it happened, a severe storm hit, my son possibly got back inside at the right time, but for our building we live in, that was a whole different story.

The introduction that isn't an introduction! Why I'm here, but not exactly telling you why I'm really here. I do have a purpose, I just haven't figured that purpose out yet. My mind is always going and now I'm sharing it with all of you. Life literally is what we make of it. I've been given so many extra chances at life, kind of like a cat with 9 lives (no they don't have 9 lives, they only have 1, same with humans, we only have 1 life), I keep wasting each extra chance I get, so it's about time that I take one of those chances and try something different. Try to share my story, step out into the world that we all live in, and speak up about all the things that I only seem to speak about behind my closed door. So here we go! By the way, before anyone goes asking, yes, I'm safe and I'm happy!

PSA: If you or someone you know is in immediate danger of harming themselves, call 911. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Life-line at 988 or at 1-800-273-TALK or text "HELLO" to 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line. The Veterans Crisis Line can be reached at 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1 to talk to someone or send a text message to 838-255.