After years of witnessing my dad lock my mom in the basement, leave bruises on her body, and make holes in the wall, my siblings, mom, and I packed up our bags and left. While I didn’t grasp the whole situation, I was ecstatic that I would no longer be subjected to the violence. I would no longer live in fear of being my father’s next victim. Growing up in that environment cultivated my timid personality. I didn’t want to play soccer, refused to talk, and rarely went to recess. Eventually, I was diagnosed with selective mutism because I believed it was better to say nothing rather than the wrong thing. However, once I started high school, one of my classmates persuaded me to take a journalism course. After becoming more involved with my school’s
