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Break the silence that surrounds sexual assault, sexual harassment, interpersonal violence, relationship abuse, stalking, hate crimes, and identity-based violence. Share your story here on our anonymous blog.

To speak about an experience with any form of interpersonal violence is difficult, but it is also empowering. Breaking the silence reduces shame and helps others to speak out about their own experiences.

End the shame. Be empowered. Speak Out!

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We are holding our spring Speak Out! on April 16th, 2018 from 7-9 pm in The Pit. For more information, check our Facebook page.

Because this blog features stories of interpersonal and sexual violence, we offer this *content warning* as a way of caution. We also ask that you do not reproduce any of the content below, as the authors of these personal stories are anonymous, and cannot give consent for their stories to appear anywhere other than this blog or at a Project Dinah-led SpeakOut event.

Monday, October 23, 2017

How can you share a story that is so long, so powerful it has engulfed your entire existence since the day it happened? At age 14, I thought I was in love. It started by my incredibly naive, innocent, freshmen-self kissing an older, attractive junior boy. It was perfect... until it wasn't.
I was pressured every time we were together. "Please, baby, suck me off. I know you don't want to have sex, but oral is different." "No." was my response. And "no" stuck, at least for a few months. When we were together, he twisted my words and spit them out again. Months later, I was finally convinced it was nothing. 
Next was the pressure to have sex. We went back and forth in arguments. I was 14. I didn't even know how to give a blow job until he made me. Sex was a word so far off in my own dictionary, but I knew the more I fought, the more he was fueled. I felt less every day. I was ice. He was fire. 
One day, it wasn't about me giving in anymore. It was about me being a body he could fuck. It was about us making plans to see each other, but if sex wasn't involved, then he wouldn't come. Sex was all he cared about. I resisted, but when I did, the violence started. 
I remember the day I ignited a bomb inside of him. 
"Quit, E, you're hurting me." 
"No, you like it." 
"No, I don't. I want you to stop. If you aren't stopping, then you are RAPING ME. This is rape." 
"Okay, fine. I am raping my girlfriend. I can't rape my own girlfriend, bitch. Get the fuck out of here."
At 14 years old, I went from complete innocence to not even considering myself a real person anymore. I felt like I was alive to be fucked. Wow, this is what love is, I thought. It isn't that great after all. 
I felt nothing. I retracted away from the world. WHY WON'T ANYONE HELP ME? I was screaming for help and no one was there. It got worse. He isolated me. My friends were now my enemies. I had no one to turn to. My parents were oblivious, they just thought I was rebelling. I stopped eating. I stopped caring. I stopped living. 
I am an independent person, even in that relationship. I became numb, raw, broken, but that never meant I stopped fighting. I would fight for the right to have my clothes on, but he always won. He grabbed me and squeezed. He made sure I knew he was in control. 
I remember getting out of the shower and looking into the mirror. My breasts, my hips, my stomach--they were all camouflaged by colors of black, blue, green, and purple bruises. Some were fresh and some were old. This was my reality. I told myself, "Break up with him. This isn't how it's supposed to be." Of course that wasn't the first time I had wanted to, but I was terrified. He could do anything. But in that moment, I knew I was about to take my life back. 
Leaving him was hard because he wouldn't leave me. He would cuss me out in the school hallways, yell at others and told them I was a whore. I believed him. I was his whore. I was guilty. It was my fault. He sent me pictures of him cutting himself. He threatened to take his own life if I didn't get back together with him. But I was done. I told authorities and I told my parents. That was the one puzzle piece I gave them. I held so much anger against so many people because no one knew. No one saw my bruises. No one noticed I wasn't eating. No one noticed I felt dead inside. No one came to my rescue. I was in a war all alone and still no one to this day knows what I went through, not until all of you. 
So, I grew up too fast and I still don't know what love is because I am too afraid to fall in love again. But you wanna know something really cool? I survived. I didn't let him win. Do I feel my chest tighten if someone is wearing the same cologne as he did? Yes. Do I shrink in fear when I see him? Yes. Did I cry the day he told me he was moving to Raleigh to be closer to me? I cried. 
At graduation, I stood before my high school class and the majority of my town and you know the first person I saw in the crowd? Him. But I didn't panic and I didn't shrink. I looked him straight in the eye and I knew I was finally getting my life back. There will always be days, but he won't be in anymore of mine. He took a lot of things away from me, but here I am today. I survived. I promise you, you are strong. You will survive too.

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