By the time you finish reading this sentence, the amount of time it took to completely change my life will have already passed.

My name is Garett Parrish. I was like any other senior in high school: on top of the world and looking forward to my future, which was just beginning in a few short months.

It was February 2015, and my friends and I were enjoying a snow day. We had been sledding down the same hill for hours, but all it took was a second to put everything I had ever imagined for myself to a halt. What started off as a day full of memories, ended as the pivotal changing point in who I would become.

My story is not all rainbows and butterflies, and it took a long time to realize what my idea of a “happy ending” could look like…

But this isn’t about the ending at all. This story is about becoming, and it’s not even close to the end.