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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative, recording and sharing the stories of service members and their families. This Veterans Day weekend, we hear from Army Sergeant First Class Anna Cherepnina. When she was deployed in Afghanistan, she ran combat stress control to help other soldiers cope during several mass casualty events.
In her personal life, she was facing her own tragedies. Over the next several years, she experienced a staggering sequence of life-changing losses. First, a long-term partner died, then another. Then she lost her grandparents. And finally, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, ending what she had hoped would be a lifelong career in the military.
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ANNA CHEREPNINA: As soon as I started to kind of, like, swim up for air, one thing after another would start to happen. To lose two partners before you're 30 - you can't make it up. And, like, my grandma was my rock. She was the mother that I didn't have. On my birthdays, she would spend hours and hours making this special cake just for me. So after she passed away, every single day, I would wake up telling myself, I just want to die. It's that depression that makes you think that there's nothing. There's no hope. There's no help.
But then, one morning, dreading to be awake, I saw this beautiful fox in my backyard. And I've never seen foxes there before. I usually have a dog bowl out there for my dogs. So I'm still admiring this beautiful creature. And then it turns around and takes a massive [expletive] right into the dog's water bowl. And I just had this, like, moment of awakening. I'm like, what the hell? I have let my life become a bowl full of fox [expletive]. And that was the turning point for me. I knew I had to keep going.
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CHEREPNINA: That's when I saw a post asking for folks living with MS that would be interested in hiking to Everest Base Camp. I knew from serving in the military that when you're in the right mindset, you're able to push your body to the limits. And I needed that reminder. I'm still that resilient, tenacious person that was there before all this loss. So I thought that it would be so symbolic to be standing next to the tallest mountain in the world.
And on Day 6 of hiking, it was my birthday, and we were at 14,468 feet. I felt super lightheaded and dizzy. But all of a sudden, the clouds opened up, and we could see the peak of Everest for the first time. It was, like, a gift that was like, you're going to make it.
Later that day, we were having dinner in this teahouse, and the lights go out. It was just, like, what's going on? And then I see somebody walking with a cake and candles on it, and the whole teahouse starts singing "Happy Birthday." I was in shock. I just couldn't believe that the group went out of their way to go find a cake at 14,000 feet. I definitely cried, and I'm not a public crier (laughter). But it reminded me that even when I felt alone, I was not. In reality, there are so many people that care about you, even if you forget about it.
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SIMON: Anna Cherepnina, for StoryCorps in Washington, D.C. Today, she's found a new path as an outreach specialist for the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps veterans find their next mission in life. This interview was archived at the U.S. Library of Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE DOT SESSIONS' "LIPTIS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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