My journey with mental health challenges has forever changed my outlook and perspective on life and people. I am a veteran of the U.S. Marines and the war on terror. I have two deployments and spent considerable time in combat. My time in combat is hard to explain and even more difficult to explain how it has affected my mental health. sometimes I feel it's made me more emotional and compassionate, and at other times I feel more callous and shut off from the world. The number one thing that has affected me the most is the number of my friends who have lost their battle with mental health here at home. since the beginning of my service in the year 2011, I have lost fifteen of my close friends to suicide, and only one to combat. To me, those numbers alone speak volumes about our mental health problems in our country and our veteran community. I often think of my friends and it saddens me beyond understanding, many of them were as close as brothers. Most of them knew my family and i knew theirs, they were called uncle by my children and shared holiday and weekend meals at my house. Now they're gone, leaving a dark empty void in the world that the rest of us have to learn to deal with. I have no idea how to combat the current mental health crisis i just wish it would end.

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. the worst thing you can do is nothing" - Theodore Roosevelt jr. Theodore Roosevelt is someone from history that I deeply admire, not only for the quote I used but because he was a jack of all trades, and was an avid outdoorsman who worked to preserve our most precious national parks throughout America. I used this particular quote because I recently decided to finally go to school at twenty-nine years old, in order to provide a better quality of life for my family and to chase my dreams. I know in my heart it is the right decision and I know I am doing something to better myself and my family.

I'm currently a volunteer EMS driver in my hometown of Cross plains Texas, I plan on getting my emergency care assistant certification only for volunteering. I don't plan on being an EMT as a career but only to volunteer in my community when I can. When I moved back home two years ago my wife's grandpa had a mild heart attack while we were visiting him. The ambulance took over 20 minutes to respond and seemed a bit lost on what to do. At that moment I decided to volunteer so that I can help Improve the EMS service for my community.

The simple pleasures in my life include taking care of my farm animals so they may feed my family, and spending time outdoors with my family, I love playing outside with my two children. watching them explore and discover new things is the most amazing thing to watch.

My dream life would include me working my dream job and being able to support my family physically and financially. I'm already 29 years old with a wife and two children, so I have the family part down. Now I just need to earn my degree so that I can pursue my dream job.