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Suicide and Me: A Painful Confession
Overwhelmingly, the last year has left me questioning where I fit in and what kind of purpose I have. With each new hurt I stepped further and further away from nearly everyone I knew. I also stepped further and further away from myself.
My Fight With Hunger
Growing up, I always got just enough food. If it was the weekend I got three meals. No one made sure I had breakfast or lunch so I often went without. I even remember a teacher buying me lunch one day at school. Friends would share their lunches with me in middle...
Why I Can’t Choose Joy
Every once in a while a neat little catch phrase will come into the common vernacular and it seems to be all inclusive. It gets tossed around like a beach ball at a concert and is much the same; full of air and of little weight. It can give the user or hearer a little...
Speak Your Silence – Childhood Sexual Abuse
On July 23rd in the Kansas City area, Rethink Trauma is holding a gala in support of Speak Your Silence. I recently interviewed Matt to get some more detail into the specifics of the organization Matt Pipkin is a pretty contagious guy. He doesn't look like what people...
Happy? Mother’s Day
I have a complicated relationship with holidays. By far the most complicated of which is one to make Freud proud: Mother's Day. I stay home from church to avoid sermons about mothers and all we owe them and how God sees motherhood. I limit the mother-lauding Facebook...
Beauty Standards and Sexual Abuse
This week my mom sent me a link to a blog post that hit me really hard. The message came with simple instructions, "Read this blog", but I don't think either my mother or myself were prepared for the intensity of the message I needed to receive. The post by author,...
The 30 Million and 1 Reasons I Quit My Job
Global estimates put the number of enslaved persons between 21 and 30 million people. Million. Statistics point at 76 percent of those people being in forced labor. 22 percent of victims fall under the category of sex slavery. I don't engage in the commercial sex...
#Jeanuary and Anchor House: When the Need Outlives the Campaign
I am often guilty of forgetting about things once the attention has moved to something else. We're not blind to the knowledge that people still need help long after celebrities were done hosting specials about cancer or hurricanes or acts of terrorism. We know that...
#Jeanuary – Pants Are Terrible, But Slavery is Worse
What these blue shackles have taught me is that people don’t really understand yet how often men and boys are exploited. When I bring it up people are usually floored by the truth behind the statistics. They recognize that it’s a problem, but not what some studies show, that it’s up to 50% of those who are sex trafficked being men and boys.
#Jeanuary – Putting On Pants to Stand Up for Men
Trafficking humans is a multi billion dollar industry. Most of the items we use or consume are in industries whose supply chains are riddled with cases of forced labor. From the minerals used to make cell phones to the kids knocking on your door to sell...