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January 2nd, 2016

It Was the Second

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This story may not be relevant. But when I was 11 yrs old, I was almost raped by my aunt’s, husbands, uncle. I had such an uncomfortable feeling when I was around him…. well, I’ll just get to the point. He was a guest, so my aunt asked me to...
January 24th, 2021

Survivor of COCSA

1
My sexual assaults story is uncommon for most and hard to most people to grasp. Who would believe that children are capable of knowing and doing such gruesome things to person? Most children are not like this and their experiences are different. It first happened when I was 8 years...
April 16th, 2009

Thank you

1
I am a survivor of sexual abuse and rape. As a child my father repeatedly raped both my sister and I until we were adopted by my step-father. I suffered from selective amnesia and didn’t remember much of my youth until I was a freshman in college and began having...
June 11th, 2025

Just Words

4
Just words. You have trouble talking about these things. You realize you have trouble talking about a lot of things. You remember being excited about your first job at Dairy Queen. One of your friends works there and you know a lot of people work there as a summer job....
August 30th, 2019

My story growing up with a secret

3
I’m a black South African, I’m 40 years old now, and my son it 20 years old… loved, taught but I still can never live him alone with my nieces as I was left alone and violeted๐Ÿ’”๐Ÿ’”๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ I have spoken about this, but I hate putting this down in writting๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ...
April 27th, 2019

Everyone Else Likes You, Too

2
I had never been to a bar before. Sure, Iโ€™d gone out to Applebees with other coworkers where theyโ€™d serve me drinks. But I was 19, and had to drive home. I had never been drunk before, and didnโ€™t push my limits. I went to the bar to see him...
September 18th, 2019

Raped in the Air Force

2
My first duty stationed 28 years ago, i was sexually assaulted by my first supervisor and violently raped by an officer in my unit. The violence of that raped, ruined me for a long time. Suffer from severe PTSD and after 31 years i am being forced out of the...
April 21st, 2021

A respectable collegue

1
The next day I walked down the stairs to the hotel, aware that he was sitting at the table having breakfast. Some things you think would never happen to you, you think that working externally with a colleague (married and with children) is not dangerous. But then in a moment...
November 3rd, 2019

No

2
I was sexually assaulted at 10 years old. I need help.
July 17th, 2019

Boyfriend Forcefully Sodomized Me

1
I had been with my (still current) boyfriend for about a year the night that it happened. We had been staying out of town in the mountains, having a great time. That night, we had a few drinks at a bar across the street from the hotel we were staying...
August 24th, 2020

My deaf husband sued the Vatican

1
My deaf husband was molested by the priest who is the head of the deaf residential school in which he was raised. This is for your mother and your husband. I am them. Although you were the person who was raped, those of us live with you and love you...
January 3rd, 2024

lucky

1
this is my second post and iโ€™m retelling my story better. iโ€™m 15 and iโ€™ve been struggling with substance abuse since 13, including hard drugs. my anxiety and jealousy in my new relationship has caused me to struggle a lot recently and i ended up going to my guy friends...
December 26th, 2019

Ms.

2
I was raped by a co-worker when I was in my mid-20’s. We were at a work function, we were all drinking, then about 10 of us went to his place to continue the party. He grabbed me on my way out of the washroom and dragged me into his...
September 25th, 2022

College Professor

2
This is the first time Iโ€™m sharing this story. It happened in 2015 during my senior year of college. After having a couple of beers with friends at the bar I started walking home. While walking one of my professors happens to be driving by and offers to bring me...
January 16th, 2021

Neighbors

1
This is to the neighbor I trust: I love and trust you. I’ve recently been inspired to just talk about thingsjust before you moved out. .. Remember when Walter (3rd floor of Sheffield Avenue) pinned me against my door and kissed me? And how I was super upset by it?...
December 11th, 2020

Letter to…

1
To all the boys who watched porn and grew up thinking that’s how women deserve to be treated To the parents, teachers, adults who should know better, who never taught us about consent or that women are equal partners in sex To the society that made me feel like sex...
May 8th, 2019

Spoke out and was blamed

3
I am the only girl at a job of 4 men. I am also 20 while these men are 40+. One worker would grab me from behind when I would walk in the back to the bathroom. This would happen often. One day all my coworkers had to go outside...
June 11th, 2019

Another poem about a not so perfect...

2
Poem-The blade on the shelf: Plenty of times On plenty of days She does a bad thing To take it away She gets out a blade She lifts up her wrist She sets the blade down And gives it a twist She calms down As the blood grows thick It...
April 17th, 2019

My Story

1
I ask myself the question…..do you get over being raped as an adult? I was 29 at the time….i was just starting to love me, except me, I was excited about life…i had a reason to get up and live. I finally believed I was worth more than what was...
August 16th, 2020

Does the pain ever go away?

4
I really don’t know how to write this but I do want to try. Iโ€™ve been reading these stories for a while and have wanted to write my own but every time I try itโ€™s too hard to actually put words down… I don’t know why this keeps happening. Every...
May 10th, 2024

I thought you loved me

1
I was in a relationship with Wormwood (my rapist), for almost two years when he drugged me and he and his friends gang raped me and beat me. The evening began at his friend’s camper on the river. While I was playing darts, I noticed Wormwood was pulling guys aside...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

2
2 sexual assaults and 1 rapeโ€ฆ the statistics of my story. I canโ€™t promise that this story is pleasant, but I can tell you that power and growth comes with telling it. So sincerely, thank you for hearing me out. October 2017 I was in Chebut, Argentina(a part of the...
January 18th, 2021

Finally Arrested

1
https://myfox8.com/news/lexington-man-charged-with-indecent-liberties-with-a-minor/ One if the men who molested me was finally arrested… I never told on him but one strong child did! Thank you child, I am sorry I didn’t report this when I should have. You are brave!
October 21st, 2019

Miss

2
My story is about how I was abused at the age of 9 till the age of 13 by a close family member, and how much this destroyed my life , it was a trauma as a child, it was intense
May 30th, 2019

My Husband thought he was entitled to...

2
Hi, my name is Kelly, I was born into a Christian fundamentalist household, I have 18 siblings and Iโ€™m the second oldest. I am 28 now. The story begins at 16, my father and mother sit me down to have a talk about marital relationships, he told me it was...
March 25th, 2022

Marital Rape

1
My husband raped me through the night of February 7th 2020. I was unconscious due to prescription medication taken after being in a car accident two months prior. Police arrested my husband. He posted 25k bail and got out the very next day. Bruises on my stomach and my hips....
October 12th, 2023

Workplace Sexual Harassment

1
As I write this story to you, please note that this sexual harassment case is still in progress. It began in December of 2022 when I worked as a contractor for a company named TEKsystems. I do IT work for Nutrien Ag Solutions. The first week I was there, I...
March 29th, 2015

Rape

2
When I was 14 (1 year ago) me and my friends had agreed to go to a party on a Friday night. About a week before the party someone mad an Instagram account and started saying mean things to us like “I’m gonna rape you” and “go die” then the...
June 1st, 2019

The Life I Live

4
When I was 7 my cousin started touch me. He was older and he said it was okay we were practicing. I wasn’t sure what he meant. This went on for 3 years. He would touch my body and claimed it was his. He said it was a way to...
July 3rd, 2020

The pain that was never mine to...

1
I was a freshman in college. It was first semester and I was there for maybe about a month. One night my friends and I went to a party. As we were there, I started talking to a guy and eventually went back to his appt.  Once we were in...
July 27th, 2021

Stolen innocence

3
So I was with my friend I thought I could trust and one day she asked me if she wanted to go meet her boyfriend (which I did not know was 20yrs old) and smoke and I wanted to get high so I said yeah then my friend told me...
November 23rd, 2014

Still Unable to Tell People

0
What I remember from that night is feeling flattered that someone older was paying attention. I was underage in a bar. I don’t remember much after that except three men carrying me into a motel room, all at least ten years older. One was the owner of the bar, who...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

2
2 sexual assaults and 1 rapeโ€ฆ the statistics of my story. I canโ€™t promise that this story is pleasant, but I can tell you that power and growth comes with telling it. So sincerely, thank you for hearing me out. October 2017 I was in Chebut, Argentina(a part of the...
May 12th, 2019

Too good to be true

2
I met him in a gas station and he impressed me mostly because he approached me and seemed genuinely interested in the bond between my daughter and I. Within a couple of weeks we were texting, calling and FaceTiming each other constantly. When he asked me on a first date...
January 27th, 2024

Blamed myself โ€ฆ

1
I got raped multiple times. I got sexually assaulted multiple times. I blamed myself. I saved a lot of women from being raped even men and when I was being sa and raped. no one saved me till today. I go outside and see the people who did it to...
June 14th, 2014

Confused

0
When I was 15 years old I had gotten a Facebook message from a guy telling me I was beautiful and that he wanted to take me out for coffee. After he asked me if I wanted to hang out at his place and I went. I had fount out...
April 1st, 2021

Sex doll

1
After work one night I was drugged by a co-worker. I woke up in his bed naked. He was not in the room. I felt 2 emotions very heavily and immediately. Shame and wrong. I remember looking around for my clothes in a panic. I don’t remember how I got...
August 18th, 2019

Abusรฉe par un voisin de mes grands...

2
Bonjour chรจre Linor, Je suis en train de regarder Brave Miss World. Merci! Je tรฉmoigne car j’en ai peu parlรฉ dans ma vie. J’avais 4 ou 5 ans. Je vivais avec mes grands-parents et ils me posaient parfois le samedi chez la voisine qui me gardait pour aller ร  un...
April 17th, 2021

โ€œI should do this more oftenโ€

1
I was 6 the first time a man ever touched me. At the time I didnโ€™t know it was wrong, I thought it was normal. My biological father would touch me in the bath and help lotion me up afterwards massaging me as he does. I knew I didnโ€™t like...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

6
My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasnโ€™t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
August 24th, 2019

Help !

3
14 and i was inappropriately touched, scared forever, changed, afraid. 3 years later i understand it was sexual assault and i moved on. 17 and someone pushed his foot inside of me through my clothes now i am thinking if this count as rape or not I think that if...
October 15th, 2022

Male dancer

1
Hello my Name is Tj. This happen about 4 years ago I was 19 years old at very young age I always tried to see the good in people. I was always happy and felt nothing could break me down went threw cancer as a baby lost my brother and...
July 29th, 2013

Why: A Poem About My Rape

0
Soothe my whys with soft whispers Wipe my tears with your love Make me whole again No more, I beg No more No more Unwanted touch Unwelcomed Stiff, rough caresses No man to hold me down, Give me forbidden kisses Legs forced apart Like rusty hinges Hinges to a door...
November 25th, 2014

Life Purpose

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I’m an Italian girl and I’m 21. I’m studying marketing at university but, besides my studies, I have a different purpose in my life. Linor’s story and movie were very eye and heart opening for me. I realized that what I wanna do in my life is not marketing, but...
June 24th, 2020

Too naรฏve

3
I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
December 11th, 2020

Letter to…

1
To all the boys who watched porn and grew up thinking that’s how women deserve to be treated To the parents, teachers, adults who should know better, who never taught us about consent or that women are equal partners in sex To the society that made me feel like sex...
March 15th, 2024

I’m a Survivor because I am a...

0
My ex husband wanted to get rid of me and my family because he had a new girlfriend so he started bringing the Neighbors in to rape me and his girlfriends to cut my hair and burn me nothing has been done I went to a woman and children’s battered...
December 17th, 2019

dad and mom rape

2
PLAYED BASEBALL FOR 3 YEARS IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE WITH MY SON, AND THIS 6TH GRADE GIRL NAMED SAM ,WAS TRYING OUT FOR THE BASEBALL TEAM AT SCHOOL .SHE LIVED 4 DOORS DOWN FROM ME .SHE STARTED TO PLAY WITH US AND GET TO KNOW REAL WELL. ONE DAY...
June 24th, 2020

Too naรฏve

3
I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
June 22nd, 2022

1 in 5

1
1 in 5 Prior to joining a university campus, a serious of random webinars with quizzes about how much alcohol can affect the body and cheesy acting about doing the โ€˜rightโ€™ thing. It flies over most college freshman, who all have the same belief that I once had โ€˜that wonโ€™t...
December 5th, 2020

Summer 2019

1
I got my first job working at a lovely Mediterranean restaurant/cafe one summer because my teacher said she knew the man who ran the place and put in a reference for me. I was 15. He was in his 60s. Two days after I started, the groping began. Only he...
June 12th, 2019

A story of a not so perfect...

2
When I was growing up my grandfather molested me constantly. When I turned 9 my brother raped me for the first time and it continued until I was 12. My brother raped me 12 times over those 3 years. When I turned 12 I told my parents and they didnโ€™t...
March 8th, 2016

Abuse Continued

2
My story differs from a lot of stories here in that, there was no actual penetration (unless it happened to me during my sleep, which I sometimes wonder). I was molested by my mother’s ex-husband. I must have been around 7, 8 or 9. This “man” lived in the house,...
December 22nd, 2015

Is There Still Hope

6
I was 9 or 10 when it happen it’s pretty sad because I don’t remember much. I was at my best friend’s house and we were playing with her brother downstairs in his room. So we ended up sleeping down there and I woke up to him raping me. I...
July 10th, 2019

So drunk I can’t remember

4
I was turning 18. I was partying like any teen would. I drank a lot. I threw up, sat down. They picked me up and put me in their car. They said “don’t worry we’ll take care of you. You won’t miss the bus”. I remember lying on the bed...
March 9th, 2021

Sophomore Year College

1
When he was fucking me he was pushing himself as deep into my body at it would allow. He asked me if I liked it but I didnโ€™t know and so I didnโ€™t reply. With every thrust I shuddered a little bit and tried to keep the pain out of...
August 10th, 2022

Middle school sexual harassment

2
Hi, my name is Valeria. When i was in middle school i was constantly cat-called and sexual harassed. people would ask me to do things (I did a couple times until i caught on).
July 24th, 2019

LOST

3
When I was 5 years old, I was sexually assaulted by many men. The next day I tried to kill myself. At the age of 10, I was raped and again tried to end it by ending my life. I also am a survivor of FASD and there for not...
April 29th, 2019

Broken Girl

2
My abuse began at 7 years old at the hands of my 1/2 brother. This went on for almost 8 years. I never spoke a word because he brutally raped me… and my 3 year old sister. He used sharp items, which caused an enormous amount of vaginal scarring. I...
March 28th, 2025

My abuse story victim to survivor

1
Abused by ex-family friend and started to be put into sex trafficking but i survived
November 27th, 2024

I know when I see a rapist...

0
The stalking, gaslighting, victimizing, and of course sexual abuse, were never okay with me. But you just don’t get that because you’re a predator.
July 14th, 2025

It Started with my Brother

3
I was used by my brother who has grown up a lot but I still carry scars. My brother is four years older than me and when I was going from elementary school to Junior high, that summer, he made me think that girls in junior high need to know...
November 25th, 2019

Are you sure?

2
Sometimes I wish I could say “Hi, I’m the ONE. The ONLY ONE”. That would be extremely lonely, but it would make me happy to know that no one had to go through the same thing. That is not true, though. So, hello, my name is Mariana. I do not...
September 15th, 2019

My rapist sent me a friend request...

1
My rapist just sent me a friend request on Facebook. It happened at party at my house. I was 16. Another guyโ€ฆ we will call him Rapist #1… who I kicked out of my house the week before for trying to assault me, showed up to my party. The weekend...
December 21st, 2020

My Journey as a Rape survivor from...

1
I was first sexually assaulted when I was 16 years old, by my cousin. He was currently living at my grandparents house. I spent a lot of time there all of my childhood because of the horses. My grandparents had horses, and I had a horse of my own that...
October 9th, 2022

When My Body Wasn’t Mine.

1
I remember the times where my body wasnโ€™t mine. When you grabbed my barely developing body forcefully. And my small body with little to no strength could not fight back. Could not take away your hands from places that were supposed to be private. Places that were supposed to be...
June 8th, 2023

Unethical or illegal?

1
Last year my partner and I worked for the same business. It was a small business near a small town and it had no management or HR of any sort – only one man owned and ran it, even though it served thousands of people each year. I hit it...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

6
My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasnโ€™t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
March 5th, 2021

7 years and it still controls me

1
I seen him today. The exe who thought he had the right to just take what he wanted. Itโ€™s like you need you moved on. That your okay. Then ask if takes is to see him and canโ€™t breathe. I froze. I just turned around and wanted to run. I...
March 8th, 2020

You Were Supposed to Be My Protector

3
You were supposed to keep me safe. Instead, you were the one to cause me harm. You came into my room one night when I was thirteen and took my virginity. You were my stepfather but still was supposed to take care of me like a father. You entered my...
September 30th, 2019

Finding Me

1
I don’t really know where to begin I don’t really know if some days I belive in myself. Somedays I suppress all the feeling away that in order for me to breath in order for me to stay alive. This is the first time Im telling my story and I...
August 10th, 2014

Halloween Nightmare

1
I was raped at the age of 22 while in college. It was my senior year and all I was looking forward to was running well and making the grades in school. I was on the varsity cross country and track team for my university and when October came it...
December 6th, 2020

โ€œMy Rapeโ€ at University

1
I was 21 and at my second year of university. I was at a study group with 3 friends and it was around lunchtime. 2 of them suggested Chinese and decided to order and collect. I was left alone with my โ€œfriendโ€. It felt a little awkward as a week...
April 16th, 2009

Thank you

1
I am a survivor of sexual abuse and rape. As a child my father repeatedly raped both my sister and I until we were adopted by my step-father. I suffered from selective amnesia and didn’t remember much of my youth until I was a freshman in college and began having...
March 5th, 2024

My step dad raped me

2
I would have never imagined the person who I praised and idolised could have ever hurt me this much. An individual who I adored more than I could have anyone. A parent is a person whose sole purpose is to provide, care for and show love to their child. A...
April 1st, 2021

Sex doll

1
After work one night I was drugged by a co-worker. I woke up in his bed naked. He was not in the room. I felt 2 emotions very heavily and immediately. Shame and wrong. I remember looking around for my clothes in a panic. I don’t remember how I got...
January 29th, 2022

My stepfather raped me

1
When I was 11 years old my parents were divorced and my mother moved myself and my brother to her hometown which was 18 miles away. It wasnโ€™t long before my mom had a new boyfriend she moved in and married. He wasnโ€™t a stranger, he and his wife had...
January 11th, 2016

Dad and Uncle Raped Me

1
I was 12 years old. Christmas Eve 1995 when I was home with my dad and his brother who my uncle. They were drinking, I was in my room sleeping when my uncle came in and took my pants off. He was kissing and touching me. He said he wanted...
March 17th, 2023

Indigo

I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on our weekly journey across the Bay Bridge to the Campus. The other student was an accomplished Quilter named Linda MacDonald. Linda lived in Willits near the famous Mendocino Art Center, but traveled to Berkeley to attend this class once a week. The Indigo vat was made in a 32-gallon garbage can and had to be kept covered between dyeing sessions. Indigo is a unique rich blue dye that develops with an oxidization process when exposed to air. Dipping the fabric several times, and allowing the natural fiber to oxidize before dipping it again, creates darker shades of blue. The dye in the vat is created from a mixture of indigo pigment, various chemicals and a reducing agent to remove oxygen from the dye. It is a rich green color while in the vat, which shows up on the fabric before it is fully exposed to the air. The smell emitted from the dye is unusual, a musky odor in my mind. I like to think that it smells like the color blue. The vat needs to be carefully stirred and maintained between dyeing sessions. There is a โ€œbloomโ€ on the top of the vat created by oxidized indigo, making a bubbly and shiny ball of material reminiscent of a flower. The โ€œbloomโ€ gets moved to the side before entry of the pre-wetted fabric. The process reminds me of baking bread or making yogurt where the steps need to be carefully followed to achieve the desired results. In the process of bread and yogurt making, there are living cultures involved in order to create the product, and with the creation and dyeing process of indigo, it has that same feeling of being alive. In order to create interesting patterns, my classmates and I would use resist techniques on the fabric like pastes, stitching and clamping. Simple household items like clothespins could be used to create patterns by folding and then placing the pins at intervals along the fold lines. Beautiful and surprising results were achieved using these methods. Image of Indigo dye on fabric during the oxidization process. My dream of being a professional artist, all started in early childhood, and the first memories of my creations go back to Nursery School. I loved playing with all kinds of materials, like paint, clay, and crayons, just to name a few examples. Mel (Melanie), painting at Jack and Jill Nursery School, Walnut Creek, California, 1960. In 1974, a neighbor in Marin where I was living at the time and studying art at College of Marin told me about an Art School in Mexico. I ended up sending off slides of my work with an application to the Instituto Allende, and was delighted to hear that I was accepted. I began my journey to study there in San Miguel de Allende by flying to Mexico City in January of 1975. A bus ride completed that journey. When I first arrived, I moved in with a family who had two small children, including a newborn. It seemed like a safe living situation for a 19-year-old woman, but that shortly proved to not be true when the husband started coming on to me. I ended up finding my own place on the other side of town. It was a spacious abode with a wall that was shared with a weaving factory next door. There were 2 adjoined bedrooms, a bathroom, a large living/kitchen area and a small concrete patio out the back door. There was no hot water, refrigerator or a telephone. When I needed hot water for dishes, I would boil some on the stove. For showers, I had to build a fire in a box below a water tank outside to get hot water. I felt much more secure living there and walking a further distance to the Instituto on the other side of town than living with the husband who had made me feel so unsafe. There was the Central Plaza, which was called the โ€œJardinโ€ that was in the middle of town, and I would pass through it on my walk quite frequently. This was the site of fireworks and festivals, like the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The streets were cobblestone and many charming shops and galleries were located downtown. The School itself was on a beautiful campus with large ornate doors in front that were closed when school was not in session. Photo of the closed front doors of the Instituto Allende I had heard about you and what you had done to other women before you appeared in my main living space one sunny spring afternoon pointing a gun at me. You had a bandana wrapped around your face and tied behind your head. I had heard you first, in the bathroom. Dressed in a long polyester dress with colorful psychedelic patterns. I wasnโ€™t wearing any underwear or shoes. I walked through the 2 bedrooms and turned left when I saw you standing there. I screamed and shouted, โ€œhelp me,โ€ thinking that workers at the Weaving Factory would hear me and come rescue me. Nobody came. You said to me โ€œCoyoteโ€ which I later learned meant to be quiet or to shut up. You grabbed my shoulders and dragged me out the unlocked back door onto the concrete patio. The tops of my feet got scraped. I gave up. I knew you were going to rape me. I just wanted you to finish as quickly as possible. You took off your belt and put down your gun. Somehow I managed to pick up your gun and threw it over the wall embedded with glass on the top, into the alleyway. The same wall you had climbed over to get into my place through the unlocked back door. Towards the end of this ordeal, I heard a knock on my door. You left, climbing back over the wall. I answered the door. My friend Rhonda had come by to visit me. I told her what had happened and we walked to the Police Station nearby. I had your belt with me. The one you left behind. I went to the front counter, telling the officers behind the counter what had happened to me. They were laughing and playing cards at the time. I showed them your belt. They told me to bring you in if I saw you again. I left with Rhonda and took a bath at the where place she lived. We didnโ€™t talk about what happened. We moved in together shortly after that. I sent a telegram to my father and stepmother about what had happened to me. Nobody came to help me. Rhonda helped me when I got hepatitis A and could no longer go to school. I was on my own when it came to figuring out how to return to the Bay Area. I moved in with my father and stepmother. They didnโ€™t talk to me about what happened to me. They sent me to a doctor who diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes. He showed me how to give myself insulin injections. He told me to practice by injecting oranges with empty syringes. My mother told me years later that โ€œYou were never the same againโ€ after what you did to me. I survived. I gave up art for 15 years before realizing that I wanted to go back to art school. In those years, I became so disturbed that I had panic attacks, deep depression and needed to move in with my mother at age 30. I started therapy after becoming self destructive in my 20โ€™s. Depression also called โ€œthe bluesโ€ has been my long time companion. It has taken me a lifetime to heal. My iPhone predicts the words, depression, PTSD and C-PTSD for my text messages. After my Indigo dyeing class at San Francisco State, I enrolled in the Textiles Fine Art program at California College of Arts and Crafts (now known as California College of the Arts) in Oakland. I was married at the time and had become pregnant with our daughter Emily right before classes started in September. Emily was born on May 13, 1991. By the Fall of 1992, I was a single mom and an art student. An inheritance from my mother who died in 1995, allowed me to graduate and to buy my first home. I continued to work with indigo dyeing and created a large textile piece about my experience in Mexico. After many years of therapy and other healing modalities, I recently started painting on canvas. Part of that process has been a Soul Retrieval session to bring back my 4 year old self who loved to paint. I am feeling uplifted and encouraged after many years of recurring periods of severe emotional pain. Stay tuned for more details about my new work. One of my final pieces was a textile called โ€œOut of the Blues.โ€
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I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on...