Darren Waller

And and that's when it's like, you know, I guess I had even more courage then to be like, I'm stepping away from football because it's just like I don't know what this is doing for me.

I could actually step out and say that that time.

But it was like it was definitely needed.

I mean, that started like in rehab for me.

So that was 2017.

Those foundations started to be laid there.

Just seeing like being vulnerable is absolutely terrifying.

But then it's like the gratification after having done that feels like what I wanted to feel when I was getting high, I guess.

Right.

Yeah.

And then, so it's just like, that's how it's like when you say it's easier for you to just speak vulnerably about, you know, the tender parts of your life.

It was just like,

going to rehab, um, started to lay the foundation of like, Oh, this feels right.

Like I can feel it in my body.

This feels right.

Like, um, there's a lot of times where I felt like things don't feel right, but this feels like the direction that I should be going in, being in these vulnerable environments, letting myself, um, be seen and not, yeah, continuing to live in my own prison.

And

over the years, you know, and it's like, you get to 2023, I'm, I was over six years sober, um, during all that stuff that was happening within me with the, when I was in New York.

Um, but it's just like being hard on myself and thinking like, why haven't I had it figured out yet?

But it's like, no, this is just part of the journey.