About the Author

Kelly Justus

Resilience and Transformation

Kelly Justus grew up in Greenville, South Carolina — a city of contradictions, of beauty and hardship, of roots that both anchor and constrain. Her journey from those streets to the surface is a testament to the power of story, community, and the refusal to stay submerged.

A writer, advocate, and survivor, Kelly channels lived experience into words that move — and move others to act.

The Story Behind the Book

Rise. Even when the world pulls you under.

Like Water, I Rise began not as a book but as a reckoning. For years, Kelly carried stories she wasn't sure the world was ready to hear — stories of survival, of systems that fail the people they're meant to protect, of the quiet, relentless work of rebuilding a life from the inside out.

Writing became the act of surfacing. Each chapter is a breath taken above the waterline — honest, unguarded, and offered to anyone who has ever felt the weight of water pressing down.

This is not a book about having arrived. It is a book about the rising — and the belief that rising is always possible.

A voice that refuses to be silenced — and a story that demands to be heard.

Kelly writes the way water moves — with patience, with force, and with absolute certainty of where it is going.

This book changed the way I understand survival.