I was not expecting to write a public letter to you, however, certain circumstances (like participating in challenges) have led me here.

I have been partaking in the Better Than Yesterday Challenge. This comes from a 365 day challenge in which you do something every day to make your day, well, better than the one before.

One of the challenges asked that I reach out to someone I admire.

I tried hard to think of someone (at least living) who I could say that I genuinely admired (other than family), I found myself thinking of you. I decided to look you up on instagram and so sent a message hoping you would be able to receive it.

However, it was a bit silly of me to think you would be able to receive my message due to the high volume amount of messages you had before. I thought about just letting it be just that. Hey, I tried right? Then a small voice in the back of my head said, well… did I really?

Something was strangling me though. The same thing that had been strangling me the past couple weeks. I needed to thank you for coming out and sharing your story because it’s the one thing that has not made me feel so alone in mine.

I wanted it to be acknowledged that you have changed things and helped so many women like myself. That, because you were able to do the hard thing, and come forward, that your words reached the people who needed to hear them.

As someone who has been struggling with my own story, I often times feel like I have no voice. That I am just a body floating, because I run into those who do not see me. I think about how I couldn’t really put into words what I was feeling exactly.

I tried to explain it to one other person, and could see that despite their good intentions, they couldn’t understand. It was such a specific feeling. Yet, you did. You gave a voice to the thoughts that had been permeating in my head.

I read your book a couple years ago, and when I did, I found myself feeling more supported. Apart from family and friends, there are very few who know my story. I know that if I need them, they are always there. But by reading your book, I was able to feel supported in a different way. With them, they can only sympathize. With people like us though, the ones who lived it, we empathize, we are connected through these experiences.

When I read your words, I understood it, and I felt seen. I nodded along as you described the moods, the anxieties, the injustice of it all. You wrote about it much more eloquently than I could have.

I felt angry for you for the light sentencing and I felt angry with the people who criticized or demeaned you for coming forward. Don’t they get it? This is a horrible experience. They are so lucky they don’t understand. I felt like shouting.

They weren’t important though. The ones who don’t believe, the ones who trivialize. No, it was your impact statement, and the outpouring of people who supported you after that began to make a difference. For once, I felt a sort of hope.

I write not only to thank you for what you have done, but thank you for what you have given me. Which is hope. Your story tells me that just because these things happen to us, does not mean that life ends. It can go on, and we can choose what we do next.

There is a saying that goes along the lines of,

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

― Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

A couple weeks ago, that’s exactly what it felt like. I am sure a lot of people feel this way, given the current state of the world. Although, my reasoning is a little different.

I am very vague in this letter because I am just not ready yet to share the reasonings why. Albeit, the fact that this letter comes from a shared understanding would imply everything my audience needs to know. Despite all these fears and anxieties, you give me courage to at least give this sentiment.

It’s a really good life, I am grateful, and try my best to not take it for granted. My goal is to become a writer someday. I want to write my story the way I would like to tell it. My hope is that it will give people the strength to carry on, just as yours have given me a reason to as well.

-Jess