At 20 years old, my life stopped just as it was getting started. After a serious burn injury at such a pivotal time in life, I left the hospital labeled a burn victim. I was surrounded by family and friends who loved and supported me, but they didn’t truly understand what I was going through mentally and emotionally. I healed physically but felt lost in the hardest parts of recovery, and that burn victim mentality became my identity for many years. In early 2020, I was fortunate to connect with the Arizona Burn Foundation, and everything changed. Through volunteering, attending camps, and finding a purpose and community I never knew I needed, ABF helped me shift my mindset from a burn victim to a burn survivor. I’ve done more healing in the last six years than I did in the previous decade, and I’ve learned that helping other survivors has helped heal me too. I’m taking on the challenge to Conquer the Canyon and hike the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to support ABF so other burn survivors, whether newly injured or finding their support years later like me, won't have to walk through their recovery alone and can move beyond survival toward truly thriving!