Lois Brown[edit]

I was a combat medic in Iraq. Twelve months patching holes in people. Literal holes. I saw things no one should see. Did things that still wake me up at night.

The bravest people I knew over there were terrified. Every single one. The difference between them and everyone else wasn't the absence of fear—it was moving anyway. Running toward the gunfire because someone needed help.

I learned more about courage in that year than most people learn in a lifetime. Fear is information. Your body is trying to protect you. But sometimes you have to override the protection because something matters more than your safety.

I came home different. Spent years working through what I'd seen. Some of it I'll never work through. That's okay. You can carry things and still function. Still matter. Still help.

Now I'm a nurse. Different kind of courage. Telling families the thing they don't want to hear. Holding hands through the dying. Standing up for patients when the system wants to move on.

Courage has a thousand faces. Physical courage, moral courage, the courage to feel, the courage to stay, the courage to leave. This wiki is about all of it. Finding your courage. Training it. Using it when it matters.

I don't know what scares you. But I know you can face it. I've seen people do impossible things when they had no choice. You might surprise yourself.

— Lois Brown, still learning what courage means