Undated Journal Entry #1

“I am only thirty-one, but I feel that I have lived many lives. I have many stories that I could tell - enough to fill the bookshelves of this haven hotel. I do not know what this story will be about. I hope that it will be one of recovery, justice, and peace. I know it will not be linear. I have suffered a terrible trauma and nothing that I have written until this point matters. I am not the same person. This is a new life, and this story has not yet been told.

Today was a pretty normal day. It is two in the afternoon, and I have only cried once. I think it happened around nine in the morning. This is the longest I’ve made it since the incident without breaking down. M and I bought coffees and went book shopping. It felt nice to be out doing something fun together, and I bought this journal as a beginning, another chapter in my life, post-trauma, and to find my new path.

I will write in this journal to heal and to document one person’s journey to recovery with the hope that I can someday help someone else.

You are not alone.”

-RHH