07/09/2026
say something about this.... what more can i say? touches me deeply...
“I spent a long time pretending I was fine.
Truth is, I was angry at everything. Short fuse. Didn’t sleep worth a damn. I’d sit in my own house feeling completely disconnected from the people I loved most. My wife would ask what was wrong and I wouldn’t even know how to answer her. I just knew I wasn’t the same guy anymore.
When another Veteran first told me about Project Healing Waters, I brushed it off. Fly fishing? Didn’t sound like something that was going to fix anything. But he pressured me into it.
What surprised me wasn’t the fishing. It was being around other Veterans who understood without needing the whole story. Nobody was trying to impress anybody. Nobody cared what rank you were or what you did overseas. We just stood in the river and talked like human beings again. Somewhere along the line, I started breathing easier. Sleeping better. Laughing more. My wife noticed it before I did. She told me, ‘You finally seem like yourself again.’ That hit hard because I didn’t realize how far gone I’d been.
This organization didn’t magically erase everything. But it gave me something I hadn’t felt in years, peace."
Anonymous PHW Participant
