- I graduated high school and I just needed to get away.

And I came up here as soon as I could, and realized that this was the place that I wanted to be for a very long time.

I may be a transplant, but I'm a Yooper at heart.

(light music) Love these guys.

A lot of people that live here live in the woods.

They don't want to be bothered.

They love the quiet.

We live up in the UP.

I don't know, we're Yoopers.

The land belongs to the Anishinaabe.

So you have Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Adawa.

And I'm part of the Adawa tribe.

Growing up, we were below the poverty line, and they really helped us out a lot.

I have struggled with mental health issues.

My therapist at the time saw that I had a problem, and she set me up to go to the Native-based treatment center out in Canton, South Dakota.

They were there every step of the way with me, guiding me spiritually, and physically through sobriety.

So I came up here not broken, but really feeling the wear and tear of just life struggles that have happened throughout my life.

At the Marquette Food Co-op, I am a cook.

Being able to feed people, food is such an important thing for people culturally.

Everyone you know goes to the Marquette Food Co-op.

They are very important to the Marquette community.

You know, people love to eat.

(Laughs) I saw the housing crisis, and I just see people here on the streets, and I decided that I wanted to help in some way.

So I started volunteering at the Janssen House.

We do transitional housing and we also have an emergency shelter.

I would cook for them.

Their favorite is the bread pudding that I make out of old muffins.

And then it just kind of went from there.

I decided to go back to school for my master's in social work.

And this was like my moment, my time to finally be able to step in and help, and give them what they deserve.

I've been in the struggle, and I get it.

It's a hard thing to navigate, and a lot of times past a certain point, people give up on you, and it sucks.

But there are people out there that want to help, that see that, that understand that struggle, and it always gets better.

You know, there's a light at the end the tunnel, always.

Living in Michigan, something just brings me back down to earth.

You see this bay in the horizon, and it's so beautiful.

And that's when you get butterflies in your stomach, and you just... ...realize, you're like: "I'm home.

This is it."

But it's completely changed how I view the world.

It just really slows you down and brings you back to the present moment and makes you enjoy life.

Puts things into perspective.

We nurture the nature, the nature will nurture us.

It's really beautiful having that connection with the land and with nature.

It feels like when you haven't seen a family member in a really long time and then you finally see them, and you give them that hug, and it's warm, and you feel complete, and you pick up right where you left off, feeling like yourself and being whole, it definitely is healing.

I've gotten very lucky.

Not everyone has such a successful outcome when it comes to drug addiction, and I'm extremely grateful every day for the life that I'm living.

And I'm here slowing down, really taking in every moment in my life.

And I feel like you just don't get that everywhere.

(dramatic music)