What lives in my spine is me, who I am at my core, what I’ve always known yet must keep relearning throughout my life. 

Overall, I was so touched by how thoughtful the students were. It was nice to see their reactions to the prompts, and how confident they were in their choices. And, the results are in!

But we know survivors are everywhere (yes, the number is still 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men), and they live complicated and wonderful lives, and we just don’t see it reflected enough in our media.

But, somewhere along the way, I think I forgave you.

I realized that I could give more advice on the things people do wrong instead of how to do it right (because it’s really, really easy to get it right). So, here it is, my step-by-step guide on what NOT to do.

In no scenario would I have survived the abuse without the help of my family.

We must continue to ask for help until we get it, and then we still have to ask for help because we will never be fully ‘healed

If we can convince the world that they can no longer get away with pushing us down and stepping all over us, we have come that much closer to ending this sort of violence.

If you don’t treat me like I’m normal, how can you expect me to be normal?

This country has not made progress, at least not to my standard.

It's the responsibility of the society that grows abusers to keep these possible victims safe.

The reaction was so supportive I could hardly believe it.

You are not broken. You are not damaged. You are not a victim.