Book Week 4

These past couple chapters of the book "To the Survivor" has been so eye opening to me. I read two stories of survivors, one was a man who was molested by a priest and one was a woman who was raped by a friend. Both of them had different stories and different journeys after being sexually assaulted but both them are good places in their lives. The man's story was very shocking to read about. This man was molested by a priest in 8th grade but never realized he was molested until 25 years later. He never connected the dots and just suppressed those memories within him. When I read this, I think about the catholic priest molester jokes I heard in middle school and I thought wow the jokes we made actually happened to people. I just had the feeling of disgust because there are people like him who suppress these memories for years and never realize it and when they do the damage has been done and there are very few things to do to get closure. He couldn't confront his molester anymore, the molester was dead. What made things worst was that their was another priest that could have stopped the event from happening but he did nothing. This lack of action or willing to make a change lead to so much pain and suffering for others. Being a bystander is the worst. But still going through all of that, he was able to speak about it and empower himself and have positive mind.
The other story was about how this woman was raped and went through years of depression and going through bad relationships. Even going through all of that, she is still able to smile and be energetic and empower herself. I would not think she would be a survivor of rape from the descriptions about her. She did not follow the stereotypes of people who have been raped. She showed me that victims of sexual assault do not have to be quiet and scared of the world. They can still have their life put together and overcome their issues. These two people really showed that their sexual assault did not have to end their normal life.