Guest Survivor Blog: I am DONE owning Your Shame

There she just laid

the life FUCKED out of her

Her safety spread like SHREDDED confetti, all over the bedroom floor

Gasping for air as she fought to keep breathing

as she wished that her heart would just stop beating

What kind of a coward hears a woman’s cries and rapes the pleading, right out of her?

What kind of an animal, a savage beast could do this to a woman?

The tears still flowing from her eyes as his “I don’t give a FUCK expression” begins to evoke such a rage inside

She tells herself that it’s all been just a nightmare

that she will awake at any moment, to find herself clothed again

no skin exposed, safe, and alone.

She slams her fists, over and over, into the mattress with every ounce of force that is left inside of her aching body

just as he penetrated her, over and over, with every available force inside of him

What gives him the right to know her like this?

A perfect stranger, causing her the worst type of pain imaginable

and then getting to see her unravel inside of it?

He walks out as if nothing has happened to her

as if nothing has been altered or changed forever

She curls herself up, in the smallest way she can

her screams still echo inside her head.

BUT

I don’t stand here a broken mess.

NO, he will NEVER defeat me like that.

He has already taken enough from me.

He will never strip away my worth, my safety, my ability to heal myself, my strength, and my dignity.

And I have a message for all of these men

for every single one of them.

To every gutless coward, who abused his physical strength, stature, and power

You may have overpowered us, manipulated, used, abused, and raped us

but you will NEVER EVER own us.

And we don’t owe you a single explanation for our anger, for our rage

You caged our minds. You walled us in.

You shattered our self-worth and reduced us to nothingness.

There is strength in our numbers

and the shame that you caused, will NEVER silence us

not ever again.

I want to ask you one simple question; the truth, and no deflection.

When you were a little boy and you looked in the mirror, did you imagine yourself instilling this fear in another?

Did you see yourself, a ruthless, killer?

Did you know that you would find a way to murder, without ever stopping a heart?

Did you realise the horrible things, you would do

the damage, you would cause when the lights went dark?

Because I know when I was a little girl

gangly and petite, just five years old

I never imagined the brutality, I would experience in this world

the horrific stories I’d live to tell

the secrets I would keep, as I grew old.

Never once did I look in the mirror and imagined me a slave.

Not once did I imagine in my worst nightmares that my heart would keep beating while I lived inside a grave.

You buried me alive and then left me for dead

under the sheer weight of all YOUR shame.

You made me own ALL of it.

But I have a message for you today.

I am DONE owning your shame.

I am DONE trying to prove that I am worthy of love

I AM WORTHY simply because I exist

I AM WORTHY simply because I am.

And nobody and nothing can take this right away from me

the right to be loved

the right to be seen

the right to be valued and treated with respect

the right to my dignity.

I’m not wasting another moment of my life searching for answers I will never find.

To the girl or the woman who’s losing her will to fight

To the one who feels trapped inside her own mind

To the one whose nightmares won’t trail too far behind.

I know how you feel

what it feels like to die

To see the world around you through broken and sunken eyes

I know what it feels like to not feel safe inside your own skin

like nobody understands the sadness you feel

the depth, or the weight of all of it.

I know this heartache

It runs bone deep.

I know that the climb to find freedom beyond is treacherous, twisted, excruciating, and steep.

This price that we paid to merely survive

and the nightmares we dream, every time we close our eyes.

All the challenges we face every day of our lives.

I need you to know that you are NOT alone.

I stand with you

I fight alongside you.

And when you shrink down, I will sit there beside you.

I will hold your hand

I will cry with you. I will wrap my arms safely around you.

But you must hear me when I say, I will not let you waste away.

I will not watch you wither in silence.

I will not let you collapse under their reign of violence.

You cry as hard and as long as you need.

But when you are done, you will rise from your knees with a fire in your eyes, and a passion in your soul

NO, I won’t leave you

I won’t let you go.

I can’t leave you like this, in this pile of ashes, and brokenness.

I will not just stand here and watch you die again.

Don’t let anyone silence this story from within you

This horror inside you that needs to be told.

I will walk beside you until it’s over, until, you are mended, and completely whole.

I know that right now all you want is to give up, to regress in silence, into an empty shell.

But I can’t let you do that

I love you too much.

You are not a stranger.

YOU ARE MYSELF