Featured Pioneer
I
n my darkest moments my mother once
told me... it will get better, one day you will
wake up like nothing happened. That pain and
hurt you feel today won’t exist anymore. You
will wake up one day and you will only feel
love and happiness. The time in my life that
she said this to me, it felt like an eternity for
me, “I’ll never get there” I thought. She said
“You need to focus on picking up the piec-
es, becoming braver than you were yesterday
to take care of your children who need their
mother.” And thats exactly what I did. I began
trying to pick up all the pieces of this madness
I was living in. The continous abuse,
the continous police reports, the in-
justice, the revictimization from the
courts and the never ending court
sessions. But during this process my
children filled the void I felt I would
never fill, gave me strength in time
of weakness and loved me uncondi-
tionally. My mother was right. The
healing didn’t come immediately
as I prayed it would but in time all
heals. After two years since my sep-
aration, who I was then, is not who I
am today. I wake up every morning
grateful for where and who I am to-
day. I am grateful for the love of my
children. They gave me my life back.
With all I’ve overcome the last two
years I’m finally in a place where I
feel I have the opportunity to do
something to help others who may
be walking in my shoes. To speak
up, inspire, and make changes on an
issue that needs more support. Do-
mestic abuse should not be a taboo
subject and the many people go-
ing through it need more support.
Pamphlets are not enough to make a
change in something that happens too often. I
have learned to love myself and accept myself
for who and what I am. I am not a victim I am
a survivor. I am not who I was and because of
that there’s a responsibility to make a change
where it’s more of a burden to not speak up.
I am one of many. There are many affected by
domestic abuse. With that being said I have
created an event that is growing every day. We
all have a story and mine is just one of so many
others. To give you an insight: 85% of domes-
tic violence victims are women, 4 out of 10 in
African-American women, non-hispanic, Na-
tive-American women and 1 in 2 for multira-
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