Overcoming Adversity
17 Feb 2026 · 1 min
1:17
A survivor of childhood sexual abuse chose not to let that history define them. They talk about their past only when it shows growth, and prefer being called an overcomer rather than a victim.
A survivor of childhood sexual abuse chose not to let that history define them. They talk about their past only when it shows growth, and prefer being called an overcomer rather than a victim.
Your past will either confine you or define you, and you have to make a choice. So will it confine you and define you or refine you? So I just didn't want my past to confine me or define me. I didn't wanna be known, and I still don't. I'm very strategic when I take conversations like this. I have no problem talking about who I was as long as it points forward. Yeah. Because it's very important to me that the conversation is Let's look forward because I don't wanna be known as John, the victim of anything, because that was probably the first decision I ever made. I allowed myself to be called the victim of childhood sexual abuse once by myself. Outside of that, I've always been, no, I'm just, I'm a survivor. I'm an overcomer. I'm going forward.
It takes a lot of strength. To be able to say the words and to even move forward the way that you have. And I truly am sorry about, you know, how life was before, but I feel like you can now be in a position where you're like, I'm proud of myself though, because I made it through that.
