00:00I ended up joining the military at 17 because I absolutely just knew I had to get away. I had
00:07to
00:07restart my life in a whole other place surrounded by a whole other support system and I was just
00:13going to have to save myself. It was the first time I felt safe and I ended up staying in
00:20the
00:20military for 25 years and I know my mom was extremely proud of me. By everything, I loved my
00:27mom and I think as a mom myself now, I can look back and say, okay, she was doing the
00:35best that
00:36she could with what she had available. First person who asked me, you know, hey, do you want to get
00:41married? It was like, yes, now this person is my savior. My first marriage was and I feel like it
00:47was because we were young, right? And he was in the Marine Corps, I was in the Navy and I
00:53just feel
00:54like the Marine Corps was not treating him very well and then in order to kind of exert his power
01:02or his authority in the only way that he could, he would exert it onto me. I knew there was
01:08a light
01:09at the end of the tunnel but my second marriage, I had a baby. I had gotten pregnant. September 11th
01:15happened so we ended up getting married like really quick, like within six days after September 11th.
01:21Once I joined the military and found my voice and like, and knew, okay, nobody can hurt me like that
01:28anymore.
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