I started volunteering as a peer coach at Communities for Recovery towards the end of 2015 and coaching full-time a year later. Not being a stranger to adversity, my life had oftentimes been compared to that of a salmon by the elders of my youth. The metaphor has not been lost on me and I feel I can relate with and understand some of the many challenges of navigating an upstream journey. I value the personal nature of experience and very much appreciate the opportunity to relate with, listen, and learn about that experience from my peers. That, along with their happiness, is the most rewarding part of my work here.