“I grew up in a very supportive, yet hectic family. My parents were business owners and extremely hard working. I grew up in an environment of always pushing yourself and sort of neglecting personal health. I grew up seeing my dad as an alcoholic and the downfalls that came with that. With my parents business, things got really busy and really successful for them. They put their whole heart and soul into it. At the time it seemed like the right idea, but eventually it burned them out. The work/life balance wasn’t there, so my dad drank even more and things started to fall apart in his life. I grew up seeing that. In 2007, I started college and was struggling with anxiety and the ending of a long term relationship. At the same time, my parents business was failing, so they looked for new avenues and started a cafe. That was going well but eventually started taking a dive. They were working way too much, like they always have. My dads health declined. He drank more. We grew further and further apart. Right around the same time, I was in 2 car accidents and developed chronic neck and back pains. My life seemed overly complicated. The cafe was going under but they were still trying to hold on. It was tough to witness all the stress that put on my parents. My dad ended up getting really sick with cancer. During that process, we had started Ambient Inks. It started getting really busy, and I kind of neglected everything that was going on with my family. I just went with what I knew, which was drowning myself in work, which I learned from my parents. I kept doing that, meanwhile, my dad was getting sicker and sicker and he ended up passing away 4 years ago. That was really tough for me. I was holding on to all of this stuff, like him being an alcoholic and not really having the chance to get to know him. For the last year of his life, he stopped drinking and became this dad I didn’t even know existed. We built this amazing relationship towards the end of his life, and then he was gone, just like that. After he passed, I had really severe anxiety and depression. It was a really dark time for me. There was a few years where it was really bad and I thought I was losing everything. I just thought I was broken. About 2 years ago, I started to evaluate my personal lifestyle. I started to read about getting back to a calm state. Eventually I put that knowledge into my life by changing my eating habits, exercising when I could and practicing yoga and meditation regularly. I started connecting with friends and family. And I made time for the things in my life that I knew I held near and dear to my heart that I had been neglecting for so long. I still struggle with bouts of depression and anxiety, but I’m just way more forgiving and nice to myself when it does happen. It doesn’t last as long, and I learn something from it every time. The things that did happen to me, especially my fathers death, took a long time for me to accept. But it taught me a lot. Just going through that with him. My dad had such a good spirit about life, even though he struggled probably way more than I ever will. Towards the end of his life, he gave me a lot of wisdom that I still really cherish today. It helps me daily just thinking about how strong he was. I grew up feeling neglected and not really attached to him, but that last year I really got to know him and I’ve carried that through today and feel more connected to him than I ever have been. I know he struggled with anxiety and depression and he chose to drink to cover it up. The things that I used to take personal, like thinking this only happens to me, now I can see that other people go through that, especially someone close to me like my dad.”