Before. During. Becoming.
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Who you were before you ever raised your right hand. Joining wasn't always a beginning — for many of us, it was already a continuation of something. A family history. A neighborhood. A set of expectations placed on us before we understood what we were agreeing to.
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What you became inside the uniform. The stations, the deployments, the policies, the versions of yourself required to survive it. Some of what you built in that season served you. Some of it you're still setting down or grappling with.
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Who you're still turning into, now that the uniform's off. Not arrived. Not finished. Becoming is fluid — not a destination you reach once and stop.
What if I told you that your experience did not happen in a vacuum. Your Before, During, and Becoming was never just personal — it was collective, carrying a historical lineage, even when it felt isolating. Long before any of us served, there were veterans in this country navigated the same three movements: who we were before, what we endured during, and who we became after. That pattern didn't start with us, and it won't end with us either.
This space exists for those who identify as military veterans using ancestral memory to explore who we are as whole people, together — witnessed fully, so we can reimagine who we are and become who we're meant to be in community, centered in our Black identity.
You don't have to have the words for your own Before, During, or Becoming yet. That's what this space is for.