This is my story: I will no longer be silent.
About four years ago, July 03, 2015 my life had changed forever, nothing was the same after. I was downstairs having an “innocent,” but “open” conversation with the closest person to being a father figure in my life at that moment. Since I was in the eighth grade, I have struggled on and off with self-harm, that’s what the conversation turned into. At that time in my life, I had some scars from previous bouts of self-injury. I was asked at that moment, if said: “father figure” could see me naked, to see my scars, to see what “damage” I had caused my body, to “show” me how he thought I was beautiful and that I didn’t need to be doing those things to myself. Let me tell you, I was only 17 years old, I tried to tell him no when he first asked, I tried to tell him that it was going to be weird, awkward, but that didn’t matter. At that moment I felt that I wasn’t able to say no, that I didn’t want to, I was told that it was only going to be awkward if I made it awkward. So of course, I fel