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We continued doing this for about four more years but as we did it more often I got more comfortable with it. I felt like it was a weird kind of obligation but also in a way I started to like it. We stopped because as I got older, I figured out that it was wrong. I didn’t just tell him to stop but I started to make him uncomfortable. Eventually, he quit and got over it. I never told anyone about it until my 16th birthday, about one year ago. For a few years I was really angry at the world but I soon understood it wasn’t anyone else’s fault. Because of that issue I had in my life and many others, I kept my emotions inside. I’ve been coping with it for many years and I barely started to let it out my freshman year. My emotions are now amplified times ten. When I’m happy, I’m too happy when I’m mad, I’m too mad. I took anger management course for two years during my freshmen and sophomore years, but it didn’t really help. Now, I’m letting it all out by telling someone who listens to me. It’s good to have a good ear to hear your pain and to take some weight off your shoulders. That is what is really getting me by.
I interviewed Valerie Anthony, the founder of Total Self Insight, a non profit agency that offers counseling and other services here in Merced, and we had a great conversation. She was very outgoing and open, which made me feel as if I could speak to her about anything. She gave me great advice and I’m very glad I talked to her because she made me figure out things I couldn’t have figured out alone. I wasn’t too sure about writing this article but Valerie gave me the confidence and strength to do it. I asked her a few simple questions and she gave me her idea of simple answers, but this is not a simple topic.
[pullquote_left]I interviewed Valerie Anthony, the founder of Total Self Insight, a non profit agency that offers counseling and other services here in Merced, and we had a great conversation. She was very outgoing and open, which made me feel as if I could speak to her about anything.[/pullquote_left]
During my interview with Valerie, I found out that there is never really an accurate numbers on children who are molested each year, mostly due to the fact many don’t come forward, some because they’re told not to say anything. According to an FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, child molestation and rape are the most underreported crimes with only about 1-10% of offenses reported.
Perpetrators may even go for two or three year olds so they can’t articulate what is going on. Valerie also says the most common perpetrators is close to home, meaning someone close to you that you may already trust. Ernie Allen, the President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, explained on a visit to The Early Show that of the 400,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, about 80-100,000 of them are missing. She explains, “they’re supposed to be registered, but we don’t know where they are and we don’t know where they’re living.”
