The Pain We Carry is a memoir rooted in lived experience.

It traces my childhood and adolescence through addiction, domestic violence, foster care, juvenile justice, incarceration, human trafficking, and systemic violence without simplifying survival or offering false resolution. This is not a story written to make harm easier to digest. It is written to tell the truth as it was lived.

The book moves through memory rather than linear redemption, holding what is often left out of conversations about resilience: confusion, endurance, shame, generational wounds, and the ways survival continues to shape the body and mind long after the moment has passed. From running away at twelve to facing twenty-five-to-life as a teenager, I write with unfiltered honesty about abandonment, state violence, and the cost of surviving systems designed to punish rather than protect.

There is no attempt to soften the truth or rush toward healing for the sake of comfort. This book does not ask for sympathy. It asks for witnessing.

And still, this is a story of reclamation. Of a girl who refused to stay silent. Of a young mother who chose life through the darkest nights. Of a woman who now stands as an advocate and leader for youth impacted by systems.

The Pain We Carry is more than a memoir. It is testimony. It is survival. It is a hand reaching back for anyone who has ever felt unseen, unsafe, or unworthy—affirming that their story matters and that healing, while complex, is possible.