I Encourage All of You Out There to Take a Stand

Once upon a time, I was a victim to my stepfather. He was, what was once told me, “by the book”, with starting his grooming of me at a very young age. Around the age of six, he began with having me massage his feet in front of the family. Years passed by, when he would make me give him massages, and eventually he moved me into his room with the door closed. 

By the time I was eleven, his grooming had switched to forcing me to do things I did not want to do. The day he told me that I wanted it, that I liked it, with tears streaming down my face, I knew that that was the last day I would allow the abuse to continue. 

When I was seventeen, my mother finally moved me and my siblings out of his house and filed for divorce. I also pressed charges against him. He pleaded guilty to “one occasion,” not really specifying what the occasion entailed. I was enraged, as I was told that his most severe punishment would most likely be probation. 

I refused to accept that. 

I wrote a letter to the judge, going into great detail of what I had experienced, multiple “occasions” and years of his abuse. The letter was read aloud on the day of his sentencing. The judge then sentenced him to 5 years in prison and probation after that. It was a shock to those in the room, and a shock to me as well. 

Thank God for the judge who put this man away. Thank God that he was no longer out there, able to abuse anyone else. I was supposed to go into the Navy, but begged my recruiter to not make me go, because the recruiter could not promise me that I would be able to come home for that court date. I willingly accepted a dishonorable discharge so that I would be in the courtroom on the day he was sentenced. I do not believe he would have gone to jail otherwise. 

I would encourage any and all of you out there to take a stand. I refused to let him get away with it without suffering the consequences. I hope you are able to fight as well! 

-Amanda, Survivor