Breaking The Silence
I have always wanted to help people in any way I can. Growing up, my parents spent much of their time helping others, and I saw how important that was to them. I wanted to work in the medical profession to help others, but the idea of needles, blood and gore was too much for me to handle. When I started school I wasn’t sure what type of work I would want to do until I had an experience that changed my life. I was sexually assaulted as a teenager. At the time I didn’t have any resources to turn to. The only agency I knew about was too familiar with my family, and my abuser was well known to the community. I knew like the people in my life would respond out of anger and make choices that would have negative consequences for them, so I never told anyone what happened. I was more worried about my family and friends, and chose to protect them instead of standing up for myself. In fact, some of my friends were there when the assault happened, yet none of them stopped what they were d...