Amber Brown, Board Member & Clerk

Executive Assistant, Haynes Mechanical
Chief Creative Officer, REMY Creations, LLC
Centennial, Colorado

Shame is the feeling I have felt the most throughout my life. As a child, it was shame of my alcoholic father, my emotionally detached mother and the sexual abuse I was suffering. That shame turned inward and as teen, I hated absolutely everything about myself. An eating disorder and drug addiction soon followed in attempts to feel even just a little better, like a little bit more. Had the girl I was then known what I know now the pain and decades of regret could have been lessened at the very least. I thought I was alone. I thought that the kind of things that happened to me didn’t happen to anyone else. I thought the secrets and the shame were uniquely mine and without question my fault. By the grace of God and real-life angels in the form of friends, I found a way to speak, to heal and to live. My why is because we are not alone if we tell the truth. If we are brave enough to share our real lives and not just convenient missives, we can find belonging, understanding and hope.