In the early hours of May 3^rd 2016, I experienced a violent trauma to my body that no woman or man should have to experience, but many do. At the time, I believed I was courageous because I reported it.

In fact, I was pulled over by a police officer on the way to the second hospital that actually had a forensic nurse on site. As I turned my GPS screen towards him, tears rushing down my face trying to explain that I needed to get to my final destination, he guided me and stayed with me all night. In my head, this must've all been a part of God's plan to have me come forward to the police and report my crime.

Almost two years later, and finally I had a court date that wouldn't budge, February 27th, 2018. All of the countless nights without sleep, with reoccurring flashbacks and nightmares were surely to end soon in the balanced hands of justice.

After a grueling 5 hours of personally being on the stand, 7 witnesses on my side, omissions of guilt recorded by detectives, a 4 day trial, etc … and I am walking away with no justice. I am walking away with no validation of the atrocities that happened to me because of a broken justice system.

Worse than that, a self-proclaimed "monster" is walking away scot-free. He is freely walking away as he "beat the system", which will surely cause more of a God-complex than he already had. And what am I left with? Incessant memories of that night, of the two years of hell being passed around the district attorney's office to countless prosecutors, and four days of a vicious trial where I was sure he would be convicted.

There is finality to the justice system. Now that a jury of 13 have decided my fate and his, that's it. There is no such thing as an appeals process for the victim. All there is, is picking up the pieces and trying to live again. I refuse to lie down and let the justice system ruin me, and I refuse to allow issues that are "taboo" keep me from speaking out. This is by far the hardest thing I've ever had to face, and truthfully I'm not sure if it will ever get better from here. All I know is I intend on spending my life devoted to defeating the current system and ensuring we replace it with one that does not allow monsters to flee from their cages.

Now I guess the question is, who's with me?