Waiting for dawn
Waiting for dawn
By Evangeline Anon
Victims of sexual abuse are 4 times more likely to contemplate suicide and 3 times more likely to suffer from depression. Every 2 minutes someone in America is sexually assaulted. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before age 18. Elizabeth Smart, the victim of one of the most famous child abduction cases in the 21st century, said,“ when you are faced with a trial, don’ t give up, don’ t surrender, move forward, because you never know what you will be able to do with it, you never know the lives you will be able to touch,” so here is my story:
The abuse started before I could even remember, during a time in my life when I was too innocent to understand what was actually happening. It was a part of
my childhood, even in my earliest memories... and as a young girl, the abuse conditioned me not to fight off any sexual advances. I blamed myself. I felt it was my fault.
One night before Thanksgiving, I was sleeping over at my friend’ s house. I found myself screaming inwardly“ NO!”, as he took away the last ounce of dignity I had left. I realize now that I should’ ve screamed, pushed him away, made it known that this was not okay, but again I couldn’ t. Like always, I froze. I was thirteen... he was twenty-one. After that, I hated myself for allowing others to hurt me. I became the bystander to the crimes committed against my body, my own worst enemy. I was broken.
As a teenager, I became extremely depressed. One day, I
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