Category: the courageous journey
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Twenty Years Later: From Seed to Oak Tree
Tomorrow marks twenty years since I almost died. Twenty years since a June night in 2006 when a near-fatal strangulation changed the course of my life forever. For a long time, I viewed that night as the day everything was taken from me. Now, I see it differently. I think that night was the day…
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The Girl Who Thought a New City Would Save Her
I look at this picture now and I see a woman who was smiling. What I don’t see is the exhaustion she was carrying. What I don’t see is the fear, the confusion, the grief, and the years of survival mode hidden behind that smile. This picture was taken around the time I moved to…
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The Bruises Healed. The Voices Stayed.
As someone with an ACE score of 9, I have experienced nearly every form of abuse a person can endure. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse. Domestic violence. Psychological abuse. Verbal abuse. Emotional abuse. In 2006, I survived a near-fatal strangulation during a domestic violence assault. That night changed the course of my life in ways I…