Claim Your Power!
By Smitha Gunturi
Pain and traumas are not conversational subjects in today's world. Sure, they are not easy, but are they not possible? We must create a safe platform for these uncomfortable topics to provide awareness, information, and help through inspirational journeys while motivating others with hope. Thus, I created my documentary series portraying traumatic inspirational lives as "The Journey Podcast." You might say, podcast!? What's a big deal? It is NOT just a podcast. These are stories of extraordinary people with extensive wisdom on life and the hard lessons they have learned. What are these uncomfortable traumas I'm talking about? Child sexual abuse, failed love, domestic violence, haunted relationship, rape, child loss, suicidal thoughts, and lone parenting. Are you thinking, God no!? I don't want to talk to anyone about these! If the thought of reading or listening to these stories makes you uncomfortable, think about living them? Why does anyone have to live with them? The way we address these issues is through statistics. Under the age of 12, 4 out of 5 girls and 3 out of 5 boys are sexually abused. We are NOT just numbers! What can help? Awareness and education. If it happened, hope, help, and support to heal and rise. Why do I resonate with these traumas? The short answer: I lived all of it! You might think: Wait, what? All of them? How did you even make it through? Live it with me for the next few mins to understand "how." My life started going downhill very young. I was between 7 and 8 years when my perpetrator put his hands on me. He was 55+. It felt odd on his expression of 'love' from what I get from my family. So, I told my parents in the words that I knew at that age.
was happening and I learned to say NO to my uncle at 17! However, these experiences broke me inside forever! I started looking for the "security" that I never had at home, which led me to end up with the wrong person, my exhusband. My ex expressed his interest in me and reached out to me continuously for years, though I had been telling him that I was not interested. Our culture didn’t have the concept of dating, so he was always around me using some excuse.
Unfortunately, the guy who was doing this to me overheard the conversation, came running, picked me up, kissed me on my cheek before my parents, and explained that he is missing his granddaughter. Little that my parents understood, they laughed it out.
Most people around us knew that he was interested and did not attempt to come close to me, including my uncles at home. His being around me gave me my "security," which I was searching for many years! So, I responded respectfully that I didn't love him, but would learn to love him after marriage if he was ok with it. Our families agreed and we got married after six years of his waiting.
Since then, it became "normal" for me as my parents were "ok" with what was happening. It continued for more than a year. Then the second person started molesting me, two of my uncles at home at the ages 14 and 17! By then, I knew what
After the wedding, my husband said without being in love I made him wait for years but married him anyway, and now I was “at his foot” and he would “teach me a lesson!" The following years went on with mental, financial, emotional,
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