{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"I Don't Want to Be an Influencer. I Want to Leave Breadcrumbs","description":"I Don't Want to Be an Influencer. I Want to Leave Breadcrumbs. For a long time, I thought I needed to figure out my \u201clane.\u201d Was I supposed to talk about childhood trauma? Domestic violence? Brain injury? Strangulation? The nervous system? Healing? The problem was that none of those things felt separate to me. Then I realized something even bigger: I don't want to be an influencer. When I first became more intentional about social media, I found myself thinking about followers, reach, monetization and how people build careers online. Somewhere along the way, I started believing that maybe I could build something big enough to eventually leave EMS. But when I really looked underneath that goal, I realized I wasn't necessarily building a new career. I was building an escape route from something I actually love. That realization forced me to rethink what success looks like for me \u2014 and why I share any of this in the first place. In this episode of The Courageous Journey, I talk about my relationship with EMS, the boundaries I have learned I need, and why serving my local community still matters deeply to me. I also share the story of one of the most important \u201cbreadcrumbs\u201d in my own healing journey. Years ago, while searching desperately for answers about what was happening to my brain, I found another woman's brain-injury story online. Her injury wasn't like mine. Her story wasn't my story. But something she shared gave me another question to ask. That question opened another door. And eventually, those breadcrumbs helped lead me toward functional neurology \u2014 a pivotal part of my own healing journey. She didn't know me. She simply shared what she had learned. And somewhere out there was a woman searching for answers who needed to hear it. I was that woman. That's when something clicked for me: I don't need a million followers. I need the right information to reach the right person at the right time. Maybe a survivor recognizes something in themselves. Maybe a family member understands a behavior differently. Maybe a paramedic asks one additional question. Maybe an advocate recognizes a possible brain injury. Maybe an attorney begins thinking differently about memory. Maybe a healthcare professional looks beyond the symptom in front of them. That's what I want The Courageous Journey to become. Not a place where I pretend to have all the answers. A place where we keep asking better questions. A place where survivors can find language for things they haven't understood. A place where families can begin connecting pieces. And a place where professionals might encounter one idea that changes how they see the person sitting in front of them. I don't want to be an influencer. I want to leave breadcrumbs. Because somebody else's breadcrumbs once changed the trajectory of my life. Maybe that's enough of a reason to keep leaving them. Healing begins with understanding.   ","author_name":"The Courageous Journey","author_url":"https:\/\/thecourageoussurvivor.com\/","html":"