Anonymous Story: The Teacher Who Saved My Life

I let it go on for so many years, and then I hit my breaking point. This happened when I was 16, after enduring severe abuse from my father for over a decade. I spent all that time scared, confused, and trying to hold on to any amount of hope. This big secret drained away all good feelings, and I was left feeling empty and lost. Things changed when I suspected that I had gotten an STD. I had no idea what to do. I didn’t have a license to drive and get tested, and I was too scared to tell anyone. So I did nothing, and decided that the pain served as a punishment for not speaking up sooner. At this point, I was just trying to keep myself together and hang on to what I had. But that wasn’t my breaking point, it wasn’t until I realized that I had missed my period when things began to spiral. The possibility of being pregnant was unbearable to think about. I felt overwhelmingly alone. And this is when I first reached out for help.
I confided in a teacher who had always made me feel safe. She listened to me and I genuinely felt heard and cared about for the first time since I could remember. She bought me a pregnancy test and some medicine for the infection. She sat with me for hours as we talked and cried. And she stood outside the bathroom stall while I took the pregnancy test at school, right by my side as I discovered that I was, indeed, pregnant. My 16 year old body was carrying my father’s baby, and I had no idea what I was going to do. But at least I had the support from my teacher who truly loved me.
I took a picture of what my body looked like beneath the layers of baggy clothes I had been wearing to cover my growing stomach. At the time of this picture, I was beyond scared and clueless. I didn’t want to have my father’s baby. He was and still is a complete monster. So I did something that’s recently been a controversial issue– I gathered information about the process of getting an abortion. I didn’t know what else to do and this felt like the necessary thing to do for my personal situation. My teacher’s support remained constant, and she even offered to drive me to the doctor whenever I felt ready. However I ended up not doing this due to having a miscarriage soon after, which was another thing that I wasn’t at all prepared for. Throughout all of this, my teacher was there for me the whole time, texting me in the middle of the night to make sure I was okay and visiting me when I couldn’t make it to school. She truly did save my life, and I honestly don’t think I’d be here without her.
So, to anyone out there who’s scared to reach out for help, please know that the feeling of loneliness won’t last forever. There are safe people out there who care about you and speaking up is so incredibly worth it. I can finally say that I know what love feels like, and I am very glad that I opened up after all the years of silence. My teacher is my hero.