Please welcome first-time contributor Melanie, a woman who has been living with Bipolar I Disorder for 12 years. Despite living with a mental illness, she managed to graduate college, magna cum laude, with her Bachelor’s in Psychology. She has performed research for the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense, has a published abstract, and has presented said research at the Southeastern Psychological Association Conference. She currently volunteers with NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) in the “Ending the Silence” program where she shares her story with local middle and high school students in hopes of destigmatizing mental illness, creating awareness, and encouraging others to seek treatment.

About this photo: “The main goal of this photo is for the viewer to create their own narrative; their own explanation of how and why this lone high heel shoe has been abandoned at the shore line along with a discarded cigarette butt. Was it an affair gone awry? Was someone kidnapped? The defining quality of this photo is that each interpretation is as unique and different as each viewer.”

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