I spent the first 20 years of my life asleep, searching in a dream for something I could feel, but never put into words... trying to understand why I could never see things the way everyone else did. Why, I always felt like there was something no one was telling me, why nothing they ever said made any sense, and why no matter what anyone showed me, I had this feeling that there was always something they were trying to hide.

Then, on March 12, 2004, I deployed to war as part of the 1st Brigade 12th Calvary Regiment Combat Team. And, over the next 365 days, I starting waking up, coming face to face with what I had been searching for... the Truth.

But, before the truth would reveal itself to me, it forced me to answer the one question I had never asked, and the most important question of all... "Who are you"? Answering that question tore me apart both mentally and physically. You see, it wasn't asking me to tell it who I thought I was or who I pretended to be, It wanted to know who I really was; my fears, my weakenesses, my limitations and everything else about myself that I had denied ever existed.

Then, finally wide awake, the truth opened its arms, embraced me and showed me the world as it truly exists... beyond the lies we tell ourselves hoping to escape our true reflection, rather, that there are real consequences to our actions, consequences that we can no longer afford to ignore.

My name is Neal Saunders, and though I am no longer a soldier in the U.S. Army, the war for me is far from over. These days however, I needn't travel 6,000 miles away from my home to find the battlefield, I need only walk out my front door.

The time is now 4:25. Wake the fuck up.