HELENA WEICK, SURVIVOR
The Closure Phenomenon in the study of psychology describes how the human brain desires to connect the dots. We want our questions answered and our lines made straight. My brain desires to connect the dots. When Larry Nassar assaulted me during a doctor’s appointment with my mother at my side, my 12 year old mind desired to make sense of something of which it was incapable of making sense. But our brains HAVE to connect the dots, they HAVE to have closure and create some sort of understanding. So my brain did. My 12 year old brain did the best it could. It connected the dots, but what I was left with was a crooked line that said, ”I am the problem…I am the guilty one…there is something wrong with me…there’s no one to trust…” What can we do with these crooked lines now? We have to forgive ourselves. I have to forgive my 12 year old self for doing the best I could with the information I had. Now, our job is, my job is, to break down the crooked lines created years ago and recreate them so they are straight and good. We have to be willing to put in the work to make sense of our abuse with the information we have now. We have to be motivated and motivate others. As brother and sister survivors, may we be motivated and continue to motivate others. May we strive toward healing.
