The men in my support group are some of the most loving and supportive people I’ve ever met. Without them, I don’t know how I would have made it through the last year.

I’ve been avoiding telling anyone who it was who was responsible for the childhood trauma I have talked about at length here, but tonight I realized that the reasons I’ve been keeping this secret have had nothing to do with me and everything to do with protecting him and his family.

Sexual violence leaves a complicated fracture in our lives. A year in, I feel like I’ve barely begun to see the pattern, much less picked up any of the pieces. But I’m healing and I’m growing.

If you need help, please seek it out. You’ll never be sorry that you did.