I’ll never forget the night I received my Black Belt in Tae Kwon Doe. It took six years to accomplish. Tournament after tournament and promotion of rank after promotion, what should have been a joyous event, a celebration of diligent work and commitment, was in fact a celebration of release from the torture I endured for years. I attended Karate classes three days a week and for those three days, I was taken advantage of and my innocence was taken. My childhood story is all too synonymous with the lives of millions of children in our great nation who fall victim to those who pray on the innocence of children and the lack of awareness of knowledge of parents and/or guardians. I was a victim of child sexual abuse which has now become the driving force behind the need to become an attorney.…show more content… At some point, however, it became a question of whether I would continue trying to win the approval of those who didn’t know my story and moreover, probably couldn’t begin to grasp the depths of the pain I was living in each and every day or whether I could realize and believe that my life’s story could change the lives of so many others. If I could only reach them and advocate for them, letting them know there is still life; one they can live that is respectable and filled with accomplishments in which they can be proud of, despite their past, as I did and choose to do
