What is the hardest thing you've been through and how did you overcome it?

“Home life was hard. My parents divorced, both claimed bankruptcy and foreclosed the house. I have 2 brothers. We lived anywhere but home basically. I mean I love my parents and they always tried to take care of us. But it was hard because they’d fight, it’s exhausting to come home to that energy. When my brother was halfway through grade 12, they were like, 'Yeah, we’re separating.' Everyone couldn’t take it. And, I was still getting over my breakup with Connor. In 2016 I completed my first university degree when we would have celebrated 3 years of dating. We were living together, but it was complicated. I found out he’d been telling all our friends that I was just his roommate, meanwhile he never broke up with me. There was a whole network of cheating going on. Like online, with classmates, and even with some of my friends. In the last year of our relationship, he was so different and I still have no idea what happened. He just changed and I knew that I had to leave. I had done all I could. So I kicked him out of our apartment. Right after we broke up, I made his actions pretty public on Facebook, I won’t lie. I told everyone the truth. I was just so over it, and he had lied to everyone about me for months. And they believed him over me; no one even asked me what was going on. So I didn’t care about my reputation anymore. Two weeks after I made those posts, a friend of mine who I trusted asked to hang out. The night we hung out, he sexually assaulted me. I knew this guy and we were on friendship terms; I wouldn’t have invited him over if I didn’t know him. I had no intentions from the beginning – he said he was coming over to help me study for exams. I told him no, this is not what you’re here for. This is not what I want to happen and he didn’t listen. I went to the police, who then ignored everything that I had told them. I was sitting on the couch where the assault happened and told them my story exactly. They only told me, 'Well maybe you shouldn’t invite strange boys over so late.' I told them I’d known him for years. He was my friend.”

“I was 20 when this all happened. I got PTSD from those events for sure. Sexual abuse has been a big part of my life, ever since I was little unfortunately. So I never had any ambitions or anything, I was kinda hoping that I could coast. I was traumatized. After Connor and the assault, first I thought ‘I don’t wanna be here anymore’ and instead I was like, ‘I’m actually just gonna lay in bed and watch Netflix for a year’ and I did. I went through a ton of jobs. So I really thought that my 2017 wasn't gonna be good. I moved up north to Pickle Lake for a month. I went there to get away from everything. It was good for a while but I needed to get on with my life. I had that time to have a break from all the craziness at home. I realized that I wanted to go back to school. This was something I wanted to do for me. After that I had so many good things happen to me that I literally never thought would happen in my whole life. I ended up moving back home and started taking summer courses, and it was so good for me. Honestly I had to hit that point of ‘I don’t care’ to actually do it. I travelled and I learned a lot about my Aboriginal heritage and culture. I went to Banff and got to see the mountains. After that I went to Israel for a month and I started excavating and learning archaeology, which has been my dream since I was young. I broke my ankle shortly after I returned which set me back a bit, but I still kept pursuing university and more opportunities in acting and modeling, and even co-authored and edited a book. I ended up having all these really good experiences that I was terrified of doing. I just realized that if you want to do anything, you have to do it yourself and you have to be your biggest motivator. But that’s hard when you’re not motivated and don’t want to do anything. Now, after 2 years of living on other people’s couches and in my car, and moving through 4 different towns this year alone, I finally have my own new place with a full time job. I’ve been through my hardships, I’m recovering from them, but I still experienced success when I was at my worst. I am so grateful for all the new connections and friends I’ve made from that situation.”