A Message From the Heart

I am writing to reassure you that if you are in abusive relationship, or you know someone that is in one that: You should speak up.

I was in a abusive relation when I was 14 years old, and it never was physical until one day when we were arguing about a pair or shoes. And it escalated to him putting his hands on me for the first time. My whole life flashed before my eyes, it was not a good feeling. At that point, I realized what everyone was saying to me was true.

But the way they approached me wasn’t cool. I got approached from almost everybody in my family: my mom and my aunties my brothers. Everybody tried yelling and cussing screaming at me. My friend lectured me about it like every day and it got really annoying to the point that I just started to shut down because I felt like they were talking to me just to hear themselves talk. But what got me to start thinking was my oldest brother. He asked me: 'Was I happy with hurting the people around me because of what I was doing?' He told me I was playing with fire and the dude wasn’t good for me. The only reason why I choose to listen to him was because he was coming from a place of love and he was very genuine in what he was saying to me.

That’s why when my ex-boyfriend and I had that last and final argument, it was easy for me to let go. So if nobody that's telling you is coming from a place of love, I am -- because I know how you feel.

When that person and I broke up, my self-esteem was completely gone. I had to start from the ground up. We were together for about a year and six months.

It is so important for the young ladies that are in abusive relationship to hear this: it's not healthy at all and it can damage you in the long run. So if you know somebody or if you are that somebody, get out of that situation. Trust me, there is somebody out there waiting for you, you don’t have to be treated this way.


- Jazmin, 17