“I spent 11 years in the Army. I literally woke up one morning and joined because I wanted a fresh start at life. I deployed Iraq in 2006. I was there for 14 months. When I was there, I was in charge of accounting for over 5,000 people every single day. At any given moment, I had to know where every soldier in my unit was. After that, I came back and realized I didn’t want to be enlisted anymore and wanted to be an officer. So half way through my career, I became an officer and as of May 1st, 2016, I got promoted to captain. But during that process, I got selected for a medical board in November of 2015. I was already selected for medical boarding prior to becoming captain, but was still selected captain because medical boarding wasn’t my fault. I was having migraines and I was missing too much work as a result. So, my commander selected me to be evaluated by a medical board. The medical board found me unfit for duty because of my migraines and gave me the boot. My retirement date is August 14th. I wasn’t ready to go. I’m officially a retired captain. Life has been a whirlwind. I’ve matured so much over the last 11 years from being in the Army. It’s really changed the person that I am. I’m more confident in who I am. I’m more confident in what I want. Family and friends are more important to me than they’ve ever been. Now, I’m just trying to find my footing. I’m taking it day by day. The Army forces you to stay in shape, but I was always proactive and kept myself fit. When I was deployed, I was working out twice a day. The great thing about doing something every day for 11 years, is it creates habits. So, even though I’m not with the Army anymore, I still have my internal clock that wakes me up and motivates me to do something active during the day. The Army taught me to survive. It taught me to lead. It gave me financial stability. You name it, the Army provided it in some way, shape or form. Before I joined the Army, I was an introverted, unconfident little woman, and over the course of 11 years with the Army, I’ve grown into something that I’ve always wanted to be.”