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I was the girl people expected to make it. I was a straight-A student. I was accepted to Yale with hopes of becoming an attorney. I was a first violinist in local philharmonics and symphonies. I played sports, danced, and studied abroad in Japan. Growing up in Norwalk, I had dreams bigger than anything I was facing at the time.

Question: “How does one perform reverse alchemy, going from a normal newborn with almost unlimited potential to a diseased, depressed adult? How does one turn gold into lead?” (Felitti, 2002, p. 45).  Answer: Trauma. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, conducted by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente (1995–1997) with over 17,000 participants, found a powerful, graded relationship between childhood trauma

“I woke up this morning, with a bottle next to me and my head upon an old wooden floor.” That’s a line I would come to write years later, trying to make sense of the last days of my drinking. But before it was a song lyric, it was a moment I lived through—one that took place in New York,

I was born a first-generation American to parents who came to the United States from India in 1995 through an arranged marriage, carrying sacrifice, faith, and tradition with them. I grew up in Maryland in a multigenerational home, my parents, grandparents, aunt, and uncle all under one roof. I was surrounded by family and love, yet from an early age

My turning point came in a jail cell at Hartford County Jail. I had been arrested again, sitting in that cold, concrete cell, staring at the walls, replaying every decision that led me right back there. This time felt different. It wasn’t just about me anymore. For the first time, I really saw the impact of my choice on my

It was as if my heart woke me up before the sound of my baby crying out to me. It was around 2:30am and I quickly picked him up, held him close, and swayed back and forth as I felt him collapse into my arms. I started to sing to him and felt him slowly find calmness. My arms were