This is hard and very personal. Very few people close to me know this story, but it feels like the right time to share why I do the work I do. Around 2008, my life collapsed quietly. The economy was unraveling, and so was my career. I had walked away from banking, believing there was no way back. Then the path I was trying to build disappeared. No plan B. No safety net. Just the growing realization that everything I had worked toward was gone. At the same time, life did not pause. I had a family to provide for.Responsibilities that did not slow down.Bills that did not care about uncertainty or reinvention. From the outside, I looked like a capable adult navigating a hard season. On the inside, I felt completely alone. I was a veteran and a former first responder, yet I had no idea who to turn