Shhh... It's our Secret

So, I had to write a comp paper on the topic... Exositiory Cause and Effect. In otherwords, pick a topic, and analyse the causes and effects.

I chose a topic on something I know, and you all know ,and what only a select few people in my reality know. My story.
You can read it before, after, or not at all for that matter, but here is in case you want to.

http://progressiveu.org/160958-someone-touched-me-when-i-was-kid

But anyway, here's my Comp Paper:

It’s Our Secret

A child’s mind is fragile. Inside lies hopes, dreams, and the happiness of living life between nap times. They’re full of questions and curiosities, and are always eager to learn. Unfortunately, because they are young and don’t know any better, children are easily taken advantage of.

When hearing the word, sex offender, what comes to mind? For me, in town lives a guy whose house my parent’s told me to stay away from as a kid. However, the problem lies with the word sex offender. When this phrase is spoken, most people generally think of an older male who seems to have issues with life. He lives in a rundown apartment building, can’t keep a job, and is always lurking in the shadows waiting to snatch a child walking by.

In some occurrences, this might be the case, but sex offenders come in all ages, shapes, sizes, and gender. This is a fact that nobody wants to believe, but it’s true. They could be family, neighbors, relatives, siblings, friends, or even worse, the children of all of the above.

An age limit does not exist.

So what happens to the minds of these kids who get violated? In the event, it depends on who the offender was, how the child was raised, and how many choices they believe they have. Some of the effects on a child’s mind range from an altered mind set, fear and loss of trust, distorted memory, and increased precaution as they grow older.

Any time a child is violated, their mind is going to be altered, more than ever if they don’t know what has happened is wrong. When they don’t know the difference, they grow-up thinking what happened to them is normal, and run the risk of becoming an offender themselves. These former kids usually end up in the court room with the defense of “It happened to me when I was a kid.” Many times children may re-live their experience through their dolls, or actions figures. Not quite as a way to reach out for help, but to try and understand what happened.

Children can’t keep secrets… Oh yes they can, especially if they don’t like what happened to them. However, whether they will tell someone about it or not, depends on who the offender was, and if they were taught which secrets need to be told.

The closer an offender is to the child’s family, the safer they are. They see the child enough to occasionally pull them aside and remind them about their secret and what might happen if they blab. On the flip side, for the child, it might be hard to tell the parents, because parents tend to be in disbelief. “Nobody I’m associated with is capable of something like that.” On any account, children begin to lose trust in the people around them, and tend to keep people at a distance.

Forgive and forget. I’m not quite sure about the forgiving part, but to a violated child, the main goal is forget. Under some conditions, all the major details, including everything that happened, the child shoves behind a heavy black curtain in the back of their mind. This curtain cannot be lifted no matter how much strength is summoned; however, at times a trigger such as a scent, may push little bits of memory out onto the stage.

Precaution is one of the major steps a violated child takes while growing up. They try to keep history from repeating it’s self, but instead become paranoid. Trust becomes hard to gain and give. A simple gesture such as a pat on the back could easily be mistaken for different intentions. Overprotective is their middle name as they try to shelter their siblings and even their own children from the wicked world we know as reality.

The best attitude a victim can take on is that of, “I will not become one of them, and I will not let this happen again.” However, sheltering today’s youth from reality is not the answer to these problems, knowledge is. Children need to be taught, before they even step foot in school, what is right, and what is wrong. They need to know who they can trust and go to if something happens, such as parents, principals, teachers, and the police. Most importantly, they need to know which secrets are okay to keep, and which secrets need to be told.

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