I am turning 48 this year, and my goal is to raise $33,000 for One Simple Wish. That's $1,000 for every year I have chosen to keep living.

When I was 15 years old, all I thought about was ending my life. After years of battling debilitating depression and anxiety, I was consumed by the worst thoughts about who I was and who I could ever become. I was in an abusive relationship with a boy who ignored me at school, cheated on me openly and whose friends shouted "Bones" at me in the halls, a nickname they gave me because of how thin I was. My parents were divorced and I was living with my dad, who was still as volatile as ever. I had been cutting myself for nearly three years and was starting to fail in school, the one place where I had always felt secure.

And even though I made an attempt, I got help and I chose to stay.

I was briefly hospitalized in a residential treatment program and spent the next 15 years in and out of therapy, on and off medication, trying to figure out how to build a life that felt worth living. Then I became a wife. Then a mom. Then an activist. Along the way, I found purpose. I found gratitude. I found something bigger than myself to fight for. I found a voice, and I've spent the last two decades using it to advocate for myself and others.

I am still here. Every day I wake up with gratitude and a commitment to keep choosing to stay.

So this year, I want to celebrate that.

I want to honor the 33 bonus years I almost didn't have. Thirty-three years of things going right and things going wrong. Thirty-three years of joy and heartbreak. Thirty-three years of trying, learning, stumbling, growing and showing up. Thirty-three years I am incredibly grateful for.

If I have touched your life in any way, I hope you'll help me reach my goal by donating whatever amount feels right to you.

Because I built One Simple Wish to be the kind of community where everyone matters. A place where people show up for one another, where small acts of kindness can change a life, and where everyone belongs.

Truly, always, I am so glad you're here.

And I am really glad I'm here too.