I was born in South Africa during the apartheid era and taught to hate everyone that was not white. I was the third eldest of six children where alcoholism, sexual, verbal, and physical abuse were part of everyday life. With all that going on at home, I learned how to manipulate people or situations to benefit me at a young age. I became a very deceitful young girl who could disassociate herself from pretty much anything if or when I

My name is Lucas, and I used to hate my life. Growing up in Melbourne as a middle child, I always felt out of place and lost, as though there was a great fog in my head, a ‘nothingness’ that stretched forever. I could not think clearly or process emotions which led me down a path of fear and confusion. I could never understand what was wrong with me. I didn’t make friends easily and found it incredibly hard to

My Name is Sharni. I was raised with my younger brother by our mother as my parents divorced when I was five years old. I could tell you where we were all sitting, what time of day it was, what furniture was in the room, who’s lap I was sitting on, and the smell the leather couches gave when I cried into them on the day they explained that dad was moving out.  I had been sexually abused since I

My name is Daniel Smith and I would like to share with you a bit about my journey. I started swimming when I was 5 and absolutely loved it. From such a young age I knew that this was my destiny and won countless amounts of gold medals, broke numerous Australian records and was lucky enough to be compared to Ian Thorpe. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse quickly when I got an injury at the age of