Quote Wall: Worth It

Trigger warning: Sexual Assault

"Instinctively I knew that before I could live, I first had to heal. Healing began with stammering, halting words, as my parents' love melted the icebergs of silence that had separated us for far too long. After graduation, the carefully constructed house of cards that I called my life collapsed. The first tentative words I had spoken were like a dike giving way. I could no longer hold the pain inside. I had to cry. I had to get angry. There were times when the pain was so great that I couldn't draw a deep breath. Times of overwhelming grief for lost childhood, lost girlhood, lost belief in the world, lost relationships, lost chances and times of quiet heartache. Every day I dreamed of what I would do with my life once I got it back. Every night I lit candles to symbolize brighter days ahead. Healing became the laurel crown I coveted as the victorious end of a race I thought I could never finish. Like a receding storm tide, the agony gradually began to ebb. A pasture full of lightning bugs on a sultry summer night, the first snowfall of winter, apple blossoms against a springtime sky, and fallen leaves in autumn all gave me the same old thrill of delight."

- Your Voices 2017

~M.S.

Note you may always contact CAPS or SARA (Sexual Assault Resource Agency) 24 hours a day at (434) 977-7273.

For more survivor reflections, you may visit Your Voices. If you wish to anonymously contribute a story to create change, please consider submitting one to UVA Survivors, a group of survivors and allies that advocates for unheard stories and experiences.