An Open Letter to All the Super Women: 5 Insights On Abuse And The Strengths It Taught Me.
The various degrees of abuse I had faced rattled my foundation, but it also revealed to me the strength I had and the potential that had been buried deep down inside me. As a young woman with a thirst for adventure, I had no concept of the abuse I would come to experience. I was a scrawny fourteen-year-old, exhaling smoke out of my second-story bedroom window and counting constellations in the sky. My creative and intuitive nature had me staring up at the stars late at night and fantasizing about a world of my own design. One evening, as I watched XENA the Warrior Princess, the sky glowed in shades of pink and violet, dotted with streaks of orange. The grey metal wall in my backyard shimmered like a piece of silver jewelry, and as I took a final drag from my cigarette, my bangs tickling my face, I felt so alive. I wanted to explore far-flung lands like the mythical superwoman and battle the villains that challenged her. But while I did get to travel, I saw things that I had never before believed possible—and uncovered inner courage that I thought only superheroines like XENA possessed. Here are my following insights:
