“Nothing was taken from me.”
Those were the first words that came to me when I described my c-section aloud.
“I didn’t feel pressured into it, and nothing was taken from me.”
Why we marched: Because we refuse to go back
I do not speak up comfortably.
Any situation that requires speaking UP and over a powerful voice or strong ideas makes me shaky and feel physically ill. It takes so much strength for me to say those first words that I become an emotion balloon, and all logical reasoning and retort power feel like they’ve been sucked out of me.
I’m not quick with facts; challenge my ideas, and I will forget my supporting argument and doubt speaking up in the first place. I will fear that I have done my cause more harm than good because isn’t this what “the other side” wanted? To prove that what we believe is empty, hollow, nothing but a Mississippi snowflake that will melt as soon as it touches the ground. [Read more…]
In my president I see the man who abused me
I wrote most of this on November 9, 2016, the day after the presidential election.
This morning I woke up and felt numb.
From the moment my eyes opened, I could feel the weight of the night’s events lying heavy on my chest. I walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My “Salute me I voted” sticker looked just as chipper as it did the day before, clinging to my shirt with the California bear walking on a rainbow. The bear, the rainbow, the stars and stripes. They held a hope that now rotted. I wasn’t ready to peel the shirt off and admit it was over. That would mean that what had happened was real, and it was time to move forward.
When I finally undressed and got in the shower, I felt the same shock, denial, fear, confusion, and sadness that I felt years ago on the day after the rape. The water rushed over my body, and I gasped as the tears came to the surface and trickled down. [Read more…]
Hello, world. The silence brought me here.
I had a dream the night I secured the domain name UNSILENCED WOMAN.
I unexpectedly found myself in my ex-boyfriend’s house. When I realized I was there, I scrambled to get out. I left so quickly that I forgot the notebook where I had been writing down my ideas for this blog, my whole vision. [Read more…]
