Today I am honoring my business partner and dear friend, Marcel Anderson on his birthday with an excerpt from the What’s Your Story Workbook. His story will encourage you if you are experiencing a challenging situation or if you are considering sharing your story.
Excerpt from the What’s Your Story Workbook, Unit Five: Discovering the Power of Your Story:
Marcel: A Victimized Man’s Journey
When Marcel Anderson approached me about helping him tell his story, I had no idea what he had been through, nor could I have imagined what he was about to tell me. I went to a listening party to preview music that he was about to release and also meet him for the first time. During the event, he began to share the story that inspired some of the music on his CD, entitled, Still Living. My heart felt like it was being ripped to pieces as he told us that he had been held at gunpoint during a home invasion where he was brutally beaten, kicked, and sodomized to the degree that he needed multiple surgeries to repair his internal organs. In the weeks that followed the event, he shared his story with me in greater detail and I was amazed not only at what he had endured physically but mentally as well.
Marcel shared that during the aftermath of what happened to him, he pretty much refused to talk to any counselors about what occurred. It wasn’t really something that he wanted to talk about so he politely dismissed anyone who tried to help him in that way. After a while, he realized that just as he needed physical rehabilitation, he also required some assistance with his mental, emotional, and spiritual recovery. Once he became willing to talk, he realized how much help was actually available for someone in his situation. He also began to read statistics about victims of sexual assault and violence and found that although statistics for male victims existed, there wasn’t a lot of information published from the perspective of male victims. He realized the importance of speaking up and sharing his story to perhaps help another man who may be silently struggling with traumatic experiences such as this. Marcel began to share his story and was surprised at how many people, both male, and female would reach out to him to share their own stories. Some who shared admitted that they had never spoken about their situation before but Marcel’s sharing encouraged them to begin to speak up.
Marcel’s decision to share his story and then publish it, (Still Living: A Victimized Man’s Journey) has helped to liberate untold numbers of people who have been suffering in silence or too afraid to speak up and thus prevented from getting the help they need. Marcel teaches that your identity is not defined by what someone has done to you but there is a special purpose for your life. He shows men that they are no less of a man because someone has violated them. He encourages everyone to discover why they are “purposed to live.”
Can you see yourself in Marcel’s story? For a long time, he felt alone, like he couldn’t trust or talk to anyone about what he was really feeling – but once he pushed past that place in his journey, he realized he could do something so that no one else would ever have to feel like they are in that place alone. As a new spokesman for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), he lends his voice to the subject of sexual assault and domestic violence so that someone can look at him, see themselves, and find hope that they too can make it.
Exercise Six: Defeating Loneliness
Have you ever gone through something in your life and felt alone? Were you ever ashamed about something you were doing or going through and dared not share it with anyone else for fear of judgment and embarrassment?
