I was in the Marine Corps I served from 1999 through 2007 I did total of five deployments two of them were what we considered Westpac Western Pacific when the USS Cole was bombed my unit was we were the first responders on the scene three further combat deployments in Iraq it was rough I was there for the initial ground invasion all the way through to Baghdad you see some of the worst of humanity and some of the best [Music] [Music] some of the stuff that you go through especially in combat is stuff that is so far removed from normal human experience that it can be difficult I came out of my experience with among other things a very severe case that post-traumatic stress disorder and so it was it was a very dark time for me I had a kind of my first exposure with therapy just it didn't go very well as a Marine you don't like to lay down you don't say oh you know life's happening and there's nothing I can do about it you know you improvise you adapt you overcome [Music] I'm looking at becoming a licensed clinical social worker doing mental health specifically with military veterans and their families [Music] it's very hard to go from a military culture to a campus life and sometimes let's get lost in the transition just seeing the community seeing veterans who are not only involved in the campus involved with each other and you know there's a very strong community there it just came full circle I was like hey this is something that I could do and I could make a very big difference I mean 22 veterans a day commit suicide and big part of that is that they're not being reached by people who can not only understand them but could turn around and help I think I can do that [Music]