As a child, Emily spent hours with her grandfather, reenacting scenes from his military career with G.I. Joes. She dreamt of the day when she would continue his legacy by becoming a Marine.
But Emily's life took a very different path. She was introduced to drugs early in life and grew up with a single mom in a family of seven who bonded over their shared drug addiction.
"We grew up as addicts," Emily says of her siblings. "That's all we knew in life—just to use. That's how we loved each other. That's how we spent time with each other."
She began selling drugs, using the money she earned to help support her mother and family. Eventually, her addiction and criminal activity caught up with her, and in her early 20s Emily was sent to Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee.
