Ty Schmidt

He had bipolar disorder, and I went to school to be a counselor so that I could help people like him.

Because his doctors didn't end up helping him.

And he ultimately went to heaven early in 2009 by his choice, in a choice that my mom and my sister and I were left to figure out the why.

And when that happened, I was actually studying to get my master's degree in clinical psychology to do the thing to help the people.

And I told more than one person that, you know, when that happened, I said, I'm not and there's no way.

There's no way I'm going to finish this degree.

There's no way I can actually help people.

This is too hard.

And when you are as optimistic and bright and happy and sunny as I am just naturally, you know,

It was very hard to feel so dark and so down and so depressed.

And working through that, I didn't cope well.

I turned to alcohol and it nearly killed me.

And I gave up alcohol when I became a mom.

And that's the first layer of my because or my why.

Because my boys have...

I always wanted to be a girl mom and God, God had other plans.

So he gave me these two boys who are ruckus and loud and have not like they're, they're, they're crazy.

And I love every, every bit of being their mom, but they've taught me so much.

And the biggest and most important thing that they've taught me is how important it is to really go, just go outside your comfort zone.

Because growth happens outside your comfort zone.