"I stopped running from my story - and started writing it."

On the questions we ask survivors, the silence we create, and the healing we deserve. People notice the acts of a survivor before they ever consider what she survived. As a survivor, you are either too promiscuous or too rigid. You either don't wear enough clothes, or you dress to hide something. You're either too loud or too reserved. Too trusting or too guarded. Too emotional or too detached. There is always something to criticize. Some decision to dissect. Some detail to q

I have wanted this life since I was little… I just didn’t know what I would have to go through—or who I would have to become—to get here. The Dream As a little girl, if you would have asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was simple and quick: a lawyer. To what capacity? I was never sure. I just knew I wanted to argue—and I wanted to do something I was good at. As time went on, that vision began to shift. I went from wanting to argue and prove myself… to wan

A reflection on therapy, unlearning survival, grieving the little girl I was, and discovering that God never left me on the floor. Therapy has been asking me to do something I’ve avoided my entire life: stay. Stay with my feelings. Stay with my body. Stay with me —without hiding behind an identity that feels safer to speak through. In one session, I caught myself referring to my experiences in the third person, like I always do. Creating distance. Protecting myself. And my th