Homeless and Unemployed

I was in the Army 10 years. Got out after Iraq. It has been a constant slide til this past year I hit rock bottom. Divorced, homeless and unemployed I tried to commit suicide for the fourth time. I found myself in a veteran's home where I was finally cared for. Social workers who listened, doctors who cared, I'm not completely home yet, and after my experiences in Iraq, I never will be, but at least I am finally learning to manage with the pain and baggage. Every day I weep, every day I hurt and ache, every day I long for someone to see the potential in me,a classically trained chef who can't even get a job in fast food. Like I said, I'll never be who I was, but I can learn to live with who I have become.

Steven Phillips
Killeen, TX