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hat does it mean to survive? The answer might depend on who you ask. For some, perhaps it comes down to meeting the most basic of necessities, while for others, perhaps it’s more about finding communities that support us through thick and thin. If you asked Jessica Huneycutt to define survival, she’d say that it goes much further than that — survival is taking the challenges life presents and making the most of them. It’s finding the silver lin-
Jessica Huneycutt
Searching for Silver Linings J e s s i c a H u n eycutt , Sa i nt s Yoga I n struc tor an d th is year ’s Moonl i ght & Mi ra cl es featured patien t , s h a re s h e r stor y of pa i n a n d perseveran ce. By Topher Balfer | Photos by Daymon Gardner
ings in the most terrible situations and using them as thread to stitch ourselves back together. Survival is turning pain into passion; it’s turning adversity into adventure. It might sound cliché, but such philosophies have carried Jessica through some of her most challenging experiences. Take, for instance, the first major turning point in her life, when she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint at just 14 years old. Up to that point, she’d been an incredibly active person, spending her free time training as a competitive swimmer in hopes to one day reach the Olympics. But the assault — and the feeling that she couldn’t tell anyone about it — led to the sudden and complete depletion of all her hopes and motivations. “From age 14 to 24, I never told anybody what happened,” Jessica said. “But I went from being a junior Olympic swimmer and straight-A student to running away from home, developing an eating disorder, depression, anxiety…all of it. It was basically a decade of a really hard life.” Through that trying time, Jessica turned toward prescription medications to treat her anxiety and depression. While they were “absolutely lifesaving” at the time, she was determined to find another solution, one that would set her on the path toward true healing.
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