<\/p>\n
\nComment by Elena Z. on 13 Apr 2010 at 8:36 am<\/span><\/p>\n
Karen,<\/span><\/p>\n
Did you ever believe when you were a child that you would be alive as an adult and share your story in a book? Was there someone in particular who inspired you before you started therapy? I read somewhere that you kept journals as a child. What happened to them? I am amazed at how much detail you recall. I can\u2019t remember what I did yesterday. How do you think you can remember so much? I love that you inspire so many people. I am going to look you up on Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n
Elena<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Dear Elena,<\/span><\/p>\n
No, I never imagined I’d share my story. Actually I never imagined I’d be alive and well and living a life I never thought possible. As a child, I had many dreams but they were often clouded by a never-ending cycle of abuse. I\u2019m glad I fell into the right hands and found the help I needed to move forward with my life.<\/span><\/p>\n
There were a few people along the way who have inspired me. Not by any person in particular, but I would find inspiration in books and stories about strong, independent women. I would fantasize being rescued and loved by someone. As an adult, I’ve learned to trust, but I’ve also been let down. I’ve made mistakes and learned many lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n
I can’t ever remember not keeping a journal. As a young girl, I wrote every day. My grandmother would buy me those black and white composition books to write in. I wrote down my thoughts and feelings and shared my pain with my journal as if my journal was my only friend. One day, my mother found them hidden in a hope chest in the attic where I hid them and started reading one. That was all it took for her to gather them up and dump them in the kitchen sink and light fire to them with a match. Sometimes I can still see the flames and smell the sulfur from the burnt matches. I was devastated. I remember that day clearly. I believe the reason my memories remain so clear is that they were burned into memory from the trauma that surround them. <\/span><\/p>\n
I’m not sure of how I remember so much, but at times I wish I could forget. I believe my journaling as a child kept my memories alive. \u00a0Once I wrote them down, they were hard to forget. <\/span><\/p>\n
Thank you for your questions. I look forward to your Facebook friendship.<\/span><\/p>\n
Karen<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Comment by Elena Z. on 13 Apr 2010 at 8:36 am Karen, Did you ever believe when you were a child that you would be alive as an adult and share your story in a book? Was there someone in particular who inspired you before you started therapy? I read somewhere that you kept journals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2214,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions\/2214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}