Dear Survivor, Tomorrow…

Dear Survivor,
Tomorrow we will start another month. We will focus our attention on another group or issue of which to be aware or celebrate. Tomorrow, folks will gradually stop wearing that color that signals they want the world to know about trafficking and exploitation. The news will slow down those stories of “rescue” and arrest. The requests to tell your story or other “victims” or “survivors” to tell their stories will fade, and the social media sharing of stories that may or may not be helpful, will begin to hit a lull…

Tomorrow, you will still be you. No matter where you are in your journey, no matter how you choose to use your experience, tomorrow you will still be you.

Tomorrow, you will still be enough. You will still be strong, courageous, brilliant, and beautiful. Tomorrow, you will still have value beyond what has happened to you.

Tomorrow, you still get to choose to lead in whatever way you decide feels best for you, no one else gets to decide what that looks like.

Tomorrow, you will still be tender and kind, and a force to be reckoned with. You will still be mighty and capable.

Tomorrow, you will still own this house.
Tomorrow you will still be you. Qualified, educated, and aware. So much more than a checkmark, a golf sticker, or an afterthought. Not a rescue mission, or a pity project. You will still be the builder of the table at which you sit, the stuff that legends are made of.

Don’t ever forget or let anyone try to convince you differently. Don’t sell yourself short, you deserve better. You have always deserved better.

Tomorrow you, the whole of who you are, will still matter.
Please don’t forget that.