Surviving Out Loud Thursday, February 24, 2022

What does the word survive actually mean? We can use it so freely, a form of exaggerative humor, such as surviving a long meeting or “I survived” after a difficult exam or even a hot summer day. Yet to someone who moves from a place of having been victimized, to claim the term survivor is significant and honorable—this word holds much meaning and heavy weight. The definition of survive is to continue to live or exist, especially in spite of danger or hardship. A survivor is a person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died. If we stop and think about what we have survived, I imagine we would have many stories of different forms of survivorship. I am a survivor of a near death experience. I am a survivor of cancer. I am a survivor of domestic abuse. I am a survivor of a stroke. I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I am a survivor of sex trafficking. In this show segment we will explore the idea of surviving out loud and what it looks like to live beyond a hardship loudly enough to be heard. Dr. Heather Evans will share about some of her work with survivors in the USA and beyond from survivors of human sex trafficking and other forms of trauma, to survivors of genocide in the country of Rwanda. Through data from a research study of sex trafficking survivors, we will explore themes of post traumatic growth and evidences of how survivors from horrific, unspeakable forms of trauma can grow beyond survival.