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On a family vacation near the Wisconsin Dells, Sasha Walters (right) was raped by a 16 year old boy staying with his family at a nearby cabin. She was 13. "I lost forever the person I was before that day. I learned that rapists take what they want, even if they look like - or literally are - the boy next door. They take your childhood, your innocence, your spirit. I am so grateful that somehow I was able to hold on so tight to my own spirit, even during the times when I had nothing left, so it couldn't slip away. But it was very hard."
"My biggest breakthrough in healing came years later when I started doing volunteer work for a sexual assault program. It was awesome to learn that I had not been to blame because I had not explicitly said no, and to be reassured that crying and saying 'Stop' are forms of resistance, too. I also learned that the promiscuity that I engaged in during the years after my rape was normal for some sexual assault survivors, and that was really liberating. At age 20, I finally felt whole again. If I had known then what I know now, I might have felt whole sooner."
"I remember when this happened to me I said that I was going to work to create a world where this could never happen to my little sister (with whom Sasha is photographed). That's why I went into social work, and why reaching out to other survivors and working to change things is so important to me. Today I can honestly say that I love my life. I love who I have become. I wish I didn't have to go through what I went through to get here, but I can't dwell on that anymore."
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