Gender-Based Violence

Have you ever thought, how everything in life, every choice and every consequence leads you to a certain path, that could have been entirely different from the life you lead now? I see it as a game of connected dots, a puzzle that you struggle to solve, every piece directing you to the next, I came here to search for myself, for the fragments of me lost over time, and little did I know that I was sent here for an entirely different purpose.

Yes, I have been raped. For me, the hardest part about it was not the trauma that resulted from being sexually violated. It was the ambiguity regarding the act especially that it was from someone I knew and cared about.  I constantly asked myself: did I have it coming? Did I deserve it? Did I lead him on? Should I have enjoyed it instead of feeling so much pain?