My experience with addiction began in a place I never imagined would take me where it did. After being prescribed opioid pain medication, I developed a dependence that eventually progressed to heroin. At the time, I was working in healthcare and attending nursing school — just six months away from graduating — but addiction slowly took everything I had worked so hard to build. I was arrested and ultimately served four years with the Indiana Department of Correction.

During incarceration, I entered a program called Purposeful Incarceration and began the difficult, honest work of rebuilding my life from the inside out. When I came home in 2018, I made a decision: my past would not be the end of my story. Recovery gave me the chance to rebuild relationships, establish a career, become a homeowner, and most importantly, show up fully for my f ...