Being an advocate is deeply meaningful to me today. The truth is…advocacy often starts in the quiet moments. It starts when someone is finally believed. When a door is opened. When a safe place is offered without judgment….with this environment, hope grows into the belief of possibility while courage moves us into action.

Looking back,…I never imagined that the most painful chapters of my life could someday fuel a mission to protect others. I never saw myself as particularly brave and advocacy wasn’t a role I sought, it was simply something I grew into out of necessity. I spoke up because silence was no longer an option. I kept going because I met others who had endured far worse and deserved far better. It became a solution to consistent barriers that needed breaking down, and an attitude of perseverance and lack of willingness to take no for an answer.

Advocacy, to me, is also about walking alongside others, not in front of them, gently leading and clearing the path just enough so they can move forward with dignity, power, and choice. It’s about changing broken and flawed systems, and rewriting the narratives we’ve been told about who deserves safety and freedom.

There’s still so much work to do, but today, I pause to reflect with gratitude. I am grateful to have had enough resilience left after the pause in my suffering to turn it around into resistance of the acceptance of things as they are, and the belief in a world that can’t be changed. I’m blessed to have gained a community of others like myself where together we fight for a world where the advocacy we do is no longer necessary, and I’m not in this alone. Some days are more tiring than others, but I pray I never lose my fire, nor stop listening to the spirit that guides it all. I pray that I carry the hope forward with purpose, so I may continue to fight until every person has the freedom, the safety, and the dignity they deserve.