You'd be surprised at the sheer amount of sexual assault and rape that happens in America... Especially with some victims being male. According to Statistic Brain, 89,000 rape cases are reported in the U.S. annually, 3 percent of them being men who were attacked.60 percent of rapes are never even reported to the authorities! Out of the 89,000, 20 percent of them were college students! These statistics also report that 12 percent of college females attempt to rape someone. This could mean that at least a small percentage of the people the 12 percent of women tried to rape were men.

It happened to me too.

It's very hard to believe that someone like myself, a guy, could have something like that happen to him, especially if the assaulter is female. I didn't even think it was possible, and I am a believer of equality, until it happened to me. Before I came to college, in the summer of 2015, I was raped by a girl whom I thought was my best friend in the "safety" of my parent's home. We stayed in my room, because my house of six only had three rooms, and while I was laying down on my side in my bed, working on my computer, she pushed me onto my back and did whatever she wanted. This happened for several days. I was constantly in a state of denial; I didn't even believe it myself until after I had been in college for a good month or so. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was raised being told that men were supposed to want that; that men couldn't be raped. I felt weak. When I tried to tell someone, I was laughed at and told that men can not be raped by women. "What did she do, hold you down?" They would jokingly ask. "You could have easily pushed her off of you. Why didn't you just overpower her?" I'm a pacifist, but even Sugar Ray Leonard was sexually assaulted when he was young, when he was an Olympic contender close to becoming a prizefighter. If he was able to stop his attacker, do you not think he would have? When you are faced with that situation, all of your power becomes nothing, because your attacker makes you feel powerless.

But beyond it all...

I was able to recover most of myself again. Through mostly my faith and my fiancée, I was able to realize that not all is lost. It took a lot of time and hard work. I have even been attending counseling for it. It took my fiancée a long time to convince me that it wasn't my fault, but I did it. I'm still recovering, but I know that one day I'll finally feel whole again and, no matter your situation, whether or not you are male or female, I know you can too.