Taylor Caravelli:  

Hi everyone It’s mid 2024. Looking back on childhood, since graduating in ‘99, has always been full of so many beautiful memories. Painful remnants too that I allow myself to reflect on if something calls me to. My favorite perspective on those years that I’ve gained gradually over time…is that if it wasn’t for surviving hell on earth some days through intense bullying that began in Junior High and simmered down quite a bit through high school years in comparison, it would not have driven me into a lot of the work I’ve done over the years. I share all of this from a place of gratitude to everyone I’ve known. I believe we all have purpose driven orchestrated moments we’re delivered through by God, as well as, our own co-creation with the universe. Although adverse, challenging, and sometimes gut wrenchingly painful, I believe it’s never without purpose for a higher reason in the grand scheme. I’m simply grateful to have stayed alive and stayed driven most days. Thank you to some you out there who have reached out over the years and sincerely tried to re-connect while knowing you put me through a living hell in too many moments to count. I believe in the power of forgiveness of others and of ourselves. Relentless bullying over the course of 6 years influenced my closer steps each day towards nearly taking my life the day of my birthday in 1999, until my parents were able to intervene in time and connect me with a therapist. That person remained my therapist for the next 15 years until I went Active Duty in the Navy in 2013. It was life changing having that opportunity and resource. I gained the skills and healing necessary for me to stay in a world I questioned how to be a part of by the time we started our senior year. Some of you and your families that used to be in my life, let me stay for a moment or few of reprieve at your homes. Between all my sports friends, and others that became “family”, I had plenty of support in the various directions I looked around. God covered me in a blanket of warmth and safety through each of you. Other days I juggled living on the street at times while working and finishing school. An equally large amount of my days were spent living at my own home with an extremely fractured and tormentous relationship with my father on occasions, which is why I became homeless off and on from 13 - 19 eventhough I would show up to school days not showing or sharing an ounce of this. Between 1999 and 2013, I went to college for two degrees, various crendentials, and trainings. Eventually my areas of work were in swim team coaching for 8 years, overlapped with teaching prek - 12th and adults as a fine art teacher, I helped to start an art therapy non-profit in San Francisco for aids and cancer hospice patients, was the president of a couple of LGBTQIA+ organizations, started my fine art business, and was an exhibiting artist doing group and solo shows, and did live performance painting exhibitions. Moved back to the PNW eventually. Returned to school for more interests/studies/trainings/credentialing. Along the years I eventually resigned from the normal classroom structure as a teacher. Through a break, I discovered my passion at that point had become to eventually run a non-profit young artist retreat for homeless LGBTQIA+ young adults. The extra plus was that it meant also being deeply entrenched in nature and the outdoors given the type of retreat system I was interested in developing. So I set out to do that by switching the framework to my career background and became a resident and day camp seasonal director. It allowed me to work as an artist part time and the rest, was spent with kids and the outdoors which became the most incredible, fun, deeply transformative, and liberating years of my life in terms of work. Eventually I was getting pulled in another direction, though. Something was intuitively suddenly tugging on me to enlist in the military. To start that process again just as I did at 19 before I needed to change my plans. There I was, at 32 years old, and out of nowhere I had this thing deep in my soul calling me into enlisting simply to help as a victim advocate. The more I sat with it for a bit, I realized it would help me pay for more college again if I needed or wanted it in the future, it would help me travel more, and I always felt I wanted to join those in my family who’d gone before me since I have a number of close relatives who served. I wrestled with it because I was planning on still trying to have either biological, foster, or adopted children. I wasn’t sure if it was worth the possible sacrifice of that. But I couldn’t shake the strange pull to enlist. I was living, working, and going to school in Portland at the time. The summer season work of 2013 finished up and in a blink of an eye, I had moved back up to the Seattle region and finished the enlistment process in less than 2 weeks although I began training for it early into that summer. I mainly prepared through practicing and training for sprint triathlons. I actually didn’t think there was any possible way I would be allowed in again due to having needed to be in trauma recovery healing and...Expand for more