WEBVTT

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- In October of 2012, I was raped and beaten

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almost to death by another military member

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and it resulted in my shoulder being dislocated

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and part of the bone chipping off the humeral head.

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My femur was fractured

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^and I've had some back issues

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^and my head got slammed into concrete.

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^They don't bounce too well.

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I was going through a med board.

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I fought a med board for almost two years, I think.

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Around there.

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Every once in a while I'd get a call

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from this guy named Charlie O'Connors

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and he called me up and asked me

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how my med board was going

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and he could see some stuff on his computer

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and I just thought he was another guy

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from the med board stuff

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and I'd get all ticked off when he'd call.

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How is your med board going?

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I'm still fighting it, you know.

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I was pretty ticked off

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and I know he tried to get me to got to camps,

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like the San Antonio camp

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but I didn't really listen.

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I didn't know what it was,

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but I got an email at work that was looking

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for volunteers for a camp that was going on in San Antonio

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and I didn't even know it was part of the program,

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but I showed up to volunteer

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and they asked why I wasn't involved

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and I said, well I haven't heard about it before.

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Well it turns out Charlie was there

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and Charlie's like, "Oh."

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And I was like, oh you're the one who's

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been calling me this whole time.

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So I mean, to his credit, he was relentless

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in making sure he made contact with me

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and since then it's just been the biggest part

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of my healing process has been this program.

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There are so many sports that I'd always been told

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you can't anymore, you can't do this.

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You can't do this.

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And anytime I'd go to a sport,

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it was like, oh well you can't do it like this?

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Here, try it like this.

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And everywhere I turned, I could.

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There was that encouragement and that instruction

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and it was like being given new wings.