Strangers in August

HOW AND WHY I STARTED WRITING

In the summer of 2016 I had fallen sick and spent a week in the hospital. While I was there I met a handful of wonderful strangers. We all shared our stories, what are goals were and how we wanted to achieve them. But as I really listened to these strangers, I realized our common goal was survival.

Before I was released the doctors told me I wouldn't be able to return to work for a least a month and that I needed to take a step back. I needed to heal before going back to work, my extra curricular activities such as rowing, aerial acrobatics and contortion (yes, when I wasn't in my grey government cubical, I was in a boat or I was in circus school), and find a new outlet for my energy.

Honestly, I don't know why I sat down at my laptop that early September morning but I did and I can never be grateful enough to myself. Writing consumed my mind and I began writing about a woman I needed during that part of my life. I was still struggling with my health and I had to find someone I could look up to, someone who faced worse and survived.

Her name is Helen Eaton and she's my hero. She was alive as soon as my fingers touched the keyboard and she overcame everything the world threw at her. And through writing her story, Far From Before, I learned that there's an arc to survival.

The climb is all the struggling, pain, loss, discrimination and heartache. The peak of this arc is the simple decision to not give up, to keep going, to have faith that when you meet the other side, you'll be better for it. And the descent from this arc is being able to see what lessons you learned, how you can benefit and how you make it to the other side.

In many ways, it seems straightforward. But there are people, like the strangers from August, who knows the road can be long, unforgiving and sometimes deadly. But you have to keep going.