Taboo
Why Reveal Details On Social Media?
It is always sunny in Jackson, MS; and in the former Soviet Union for that matter or so I am led to believe. This holds true most definitely when one's subsidized government housing landlord inspects one's digs, deciding that foil should be removed from a stovetop burner or two. After all the manager assures one that the complex intends to simultaneously break open the coffers and...well, maybe you get the idea.
By P. B. Friedman4 years ago in Confessions
Pain
It all started when I was the young age of five years old. A fellow kindergartener touched me. He touched me down there, multiple times. I never spoke up because I was so young I had no idea what was happening. He did it to my peers as well. Someone spoke up and his parents got brought in. They defended his behaviour. He was promptly removed from the school. That was my first experience with sexual assault. As I got older it was touches here and then by men at bars. I was disgusted but I would freeze unsure what to do. It’s such a normalized thing for women, it happens and we brush it off. That’s what it was like for me until I was 21. I was at a bar, I met a man who introduced himself and as we got to talking we realized we knew each other. He was a good friends half brother. I ended up getting so drunk that night I blacked out which is out of character for me. I remember bits and pieces of the night. That night I lost my virginity while someone watched. Without my consent. I was naive and didn’t call it what it was. Rape. I tried to have relationship with this person to normalize the situation. It didn’t turn out well. When I put the pieces together I was shocked and disappointed in myself. I felt guilty. Like this was somehow my fault. I decided to come forward and tell my friends what had happened. My good friend lost her mind and defended her brother. We are no longer friends because her brother could never do such a thing. My best friend heard me out but defended him like rape had categories. It felt like a hot knife was twisting me in the gut. We decided it was best to go our separate ways as she chose him over me. “Well he’ll be at my wedding so..”. I’m an example of why women don’t come forward. When we are not believed by our closest friends, why do we expect anyone else to take us seriously?. We as women need to take control of our narrative. Be strong. Come forward no matter what the loss and speak your truth. In the end it’s what’s best for you and your mental health. Healing can only start once you open up about these types of situations. Keep the people who love and support close to you like sunshine. There is a light at the end of the tunnel if you are going through a sexual violence situation. I’m healing slowly and steadily. Losing touch with people who took the side of my perpetrator was a huge step for me. It hurt but I feel lighter knowing that I do have people who love and support me. It may hurt now but it does get better I promise. Being able to overcome sexual violence only makes us stronger. We are not to blame. Their are resources out there for victims of sexual violence. From free counseling that specializes in women who have go through acts of sexual violence to mental health services. I am lucky enough to have a wonderful psychiatrist that I am able to lean on. No matter where you are in the world resources are available to you even if it’s just online help and support are always out there. Right now I’m in a thriving relationship with a man who knows what I’ve been through and loves me anyways scars and all. I have a solid support team around me that have my back no matter what. I’m lucky that way. If your struggling it will and does get better trust me. I’m a proven case of that. I lost the people I was closest too and I’m thriving. We aren’t victims we’re survivors. We support and hold each other up. Keep your head up sunshine.
By Sabrina4 years ago in Confessions
Designer Instincts
I met my childhood best friend, Mike, shortly after my parents purchased their first home in a nondescript suburb of Minneapolis in 1984. I was two years old and can’t remember our first interaction, but the story of our meeting is one of those tales that takes on mythic proportions for small, interested audiences. The story goes like this. Mike's mother, Pam, wandered across the street to welcome my mom and me to the neighborhood, hopeful that I might become a playmate for her youngest son. I was riding a tricycle and immediately offered Mike my Big Wheel with the words, "Here. You can have this one." And then, we were inseparable.
By Erin Benson4 years ago in Confessions
Chronically Ill Black Lives Matter
Imagine waking up in the middle of the night with sudden, violent spasming in your body. These spasms feel like there is literally a fist on fire, started from the bottom of your feet, squeezing every single tendon. Every muscle. Every nerve. That fire then spreads up to your stomach and clenches it harder than a baby that's got their tint fist locked around a bite of your food. It lingers there and while its there sets off a chain reaction of other symptoms: intense nausea, sudden runs to the bathroom (you know what I mean. The kind that makes you sit and pray to every god you have ever heard about and contemplate life changes if they could just make it stop), and chills. You shake uncontrollably as the fire finally moves on to your head back to the base of your skull. You get a few moments before it all begins again.
By Rasheda Collins4 years ago in Confessions
Almost Love: Part Four
We have to stop, I write, but delete it without sending because I never mean it, even when I want to. She will be here tonight, his Queen; the universe finally noticed that I’m long overdue for some karmic punishment. I clearly need to look into the eyes of the woman I’m attempting to replace, and really feel the damage I’m going to cause her when she finds out who I am.
By Shea Keating4 years ago in Confessions
Confessions of a Cult Member
I attacked with a beautiful anger. Justification in every way; confined by this religion. My plans were suspended while being a doormat for these men. They travel; we stay behind. They teach; we learn. Hours of reading scribes on the weekends coupled with long hours of work throughout the week. How did all these children become my responsibility when I am barren? Being made for family and companionship turned me into a servant. Their god is unlike any. He wants to destroy. He hates a multitude of people. “We are above the entire world” they say. “Come follow our ways and you will be the wealthiest. Enlightened to the highest extent. Sons and daughters of the father.”
By Brittany Fuller4 years ago in Confessions
Sexuality is In My Soul. Top Story - August 2021.
I've always been sexual. While I don't believe anyone is born a hotwife, I can definitely say there were some early signs or some might say neon lights indicating the path I would eventually choose to take.
By Belle du Journey4 years ago in Confessions
Tales From The Morgue
The fear of death has haunted humanity since the beginning of time. Is it the pain of death? The fear of the unknown? Or some other reason that makes death seem so, fucking scary? Today we are going to look at 10 stories from people who come up close and personal with death everyday. The people who work in the morgue or mortuary, which is where the dead bodies go in between the time of death and burial.
By Jessica Bugg4 years ago in Confessions
paradise
If you part the red sea and save your people from genocide, you retire. You live out the rest of your days knowing you did good work. You let the people you saved bring you manna and you make off color jokes about Egyptian tyrants. When your people grow complacent with the good times and decide to melt their jewelry into animal sculptures they can worship, you celebrate their creativity and then nicely recommend they all see therapists. What you don’t do is you do not climb Mt. Sinai to get a set of 10 divine rules that are literally set in stone. If you do that, you’re condemning all future people who use a Judaeo-Christian operating system to worry that their moments of pleasure are moments of over-indulgence, that their dark thoughts are as bad as dark acts. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Thou did not. I did not. I did not commit adultery. I couldn’t even if I wanted to because I’m not married. I also did not covet my neighbor’s wife. But I did, Jesus H Christ did I ever, covet some random woman’s husband.
By Nicholas Leger4 years ago in Confessions
