I’m a resident of the second District, a survivor of domestic violence..

I am clean now..

Eleven months I was on meth and it took me from my husband and my kids to the side of the freeway, about ready to become a freeway burrito.

Nobody’s nobody.

But I got myself clean with the help of a family member.

I am now the manager of a sober living house.

So you can get out of a dark place in a tight space and make a complete recovery.

And what you’ve been through doesn’t have to define you.

It’s something that makes you stronger because you get past it.

And I’m just here to give strength and hope to somebody that’s going through it and to help them be strong.

I say I’m not a warrior, I’m a warrior.

I’m a survivor.

And I pass on my stories and my message to women to give them strength and hope so they don’t have to go through it and think that they have to be in that position.

You can come out of it and it is brighter on the other side.

It’s a really dark place being on the side of the freeway, away from your family, away from your friends and in the elements.

Washing up in a paint bucket if my kids and my family knew that that’s where I had was led to from my home and from my place by somebody that did not care about a female.

We were just things, items to be disposed of and that was their plan for me.

But God spoke to me on that side of that freeway and I had to give everything and turn it over to him for him to guide me through it.

For me to be here, to tell somebody else that the side of the freeway does not have to be your last point.

You can get on and you can get out of that and just have strength.

Believe in God and believe in yourself most of all that you can do it.

I am Martha and I was a meth user and I was temporarily on the side of the freeway.

And I was going to be somebody’s nobody to be rolled up and discarded, but I’m somebody’s somebody.

Thank you.

Bye.