Inspirations for Cyberheroes

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The Power of You: Inspirations for Cyberheroes

"In eve In ev In ev

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ry community, there is work to be done. ery nation, there are wounds to heal. ery heart, there is the power to do it."

Marianne Williamson

Photograph by Bethany Wichman Buescher

“You have no idea of the effect your acknowledgement of my situation means. I feel like a giant ball of anxiety has already been lifted out of me.”

Everyone around me is breaking, but the sun is shining. It smells like summer which always makes me sick.

You are hurting, I can see it.

Tangible and red and purple, the colors you were wearing when the mysterious He began to tear you, limb from limb. When he raped you. He, the amorphous male who doesn't know, and I wonder: who are all of these rapists?

But that would take away from the point, which is you. My friend. And

maybe pain really is relative, but I can still quite confidentlysay I’d like to scream at the next one who is losing their mind over minutia and I blamed myself for all things big and small, but you are still living, breathing, holding your self together even in the midst of trauma and devastation.

People ask, time and again, how I can fill my days with such heartbreak, how do I not lose hope? This trauma that I can see through a screen shows me both the inner-workings of brilliant and terrified minds, and also the great capacity for audacity, tenacity and necessity to live and love despite the violent acts of others.

Each time they ask, I press my palm to my heart and I point to you.

-OHL Volunteer

“Thank you for the validation, I needed it. Some days I just feel turned around. Glad I reached

out this time.”

Photograph by Jessica Nesbitt, OHL Volunteer

"Thank you for listening. It's nice to know that there are people that are always available and understanding---as something like this can be very isolating, where you feel like no one understands. You've helped me just by

listening."

“Thank you for your help. What you do for people is invaluable, and I hope

you know that.”

“Thank you so much! You gave me the push

to go check out a rape crisis center.”

HENRY Henry won't you stay a while with me Henry can't you understand my plead

I just want someone to listen I just want someone to listen

henry says it won't last long you see henry says will you do something for me

Promise that you'll stay alive there is so much more that you still hide

I've been completely with no desire

to keep on holding appearances and smile there is a part of me that is new and scary

it's been sleeping for a while

I don't know this thing inside but it's alright, but it's alright I want to scream out and be

someone else this can't be me

so henry thank you for this

go and tell it to the other kids I've been lost and worn out

confused exhausted without a doubt so let me tell you this

I'm taking the best of everything the necklace in my hand

breathing in and breathing out

it's been sleeping inside me I don't know this energy

but it's alright, but it's alright I want

to scream out and be someone else this can't be me but it's alright, but it's alright

-OHL Visitor

Be Free by Laura Barnett, OHL Volunteer, OHL Volunteer

“Act as if what you do makes a difference.

It does.”

William James

“You are doing great work too…. Good luck and God bless, this service really changes lives and turns victims into survivors. Thanks!”

"I love RAINN, and I really appreciate

everything that you do there. You don't know how

much you've helped me."

“I didn't know if anything could

help, but you did.”

“The ultimate expression of generosity is not in giving of what you have, but in giving of who you are.”

Johnnetta B. Cole

“After a while it became clear that what was upsetting her the most was that she thought

because there would be no prosecution that no one would ever believe her. I told her simply that

I

believed

her,

and that in time, with her therapist, she could decide who the people are that she could trust to tell, the people who would also believe her. She

was silent for several minutes, and then typed that she had been crying because before I wrote that she was so certain no one would ever believe her without a prosecution. She said those three words

changed everything for her.”

-OHL Volunteer

Photograph by Jessica Nesbitt, OHL VolunteerPhotograph by Jessica Nesbitt, OHL Volunteer

They kept saying things like, "I feel really comfortable talking to you---I could talk to you about anything", and "You really care and you're attentive and concerned about

everything" which made me feel really good!”

-OHL Volunteer

Special thanks to

“Thanks. I feel like you, and RAINN as a whole, really understand the people who connect with you.”

Special thanks to “Thanks. I feel like you, and RAINN as a whole, really understand the people who connect with you.”

Special thanks to the following contributors:

Jessica Nesbitt

Laura Barnett

Priyanka Gogia

Created by Jessica Nesbitt