You would never guess

A grad student teaches my Criminology class and it is quite possibly one of my favorite classes this semester. She is a warm, bubbly, caring, and infectious person. Completely, normal, just like you and I – comes from a good background. Today we learned that she was a victim of domestic violence. Obviously, we were completely shocked. Why anyone would ever want to physically hurt such an understanding, caring, and beautiful woman is completely beyond me, but the reality is that it happens all the time, to our friends, and to the people around us. Her story made me so angry. She is a smart professional woman, and I guess I blame the media for stereotyping, but you would never guess that a woman like this would ever be a victim of this type of crime. You always think of people of lower socioeconomic backgrounds and it just didn't make sense. We had always wondered why she wasn't married yet - but it turns out she got married when she was 24 to a seemingly nice guy and over time he became really jealous and would emotionally abuse her and accuse her of adultery etc etc... anyway I guess you could say she was never really happy when she was with him, but because her family is Catholic, I can understand why she would try to keep things going and try to stick it out. Divorce is frowned upon in Catholic families. Anyway, one day they were having a heated argument and he ended up picking her up and throwing her outside and that was the first and last time he would ever lay a hand on her. She got help that day and promised herself never to go back. That day, he also fled. Hearing this was so completely surreal, on the surface you would never know that something this traumatic happened to her. She was married to the guy for 4 years and it has since been 7 years since this whole ordeal ended. I see her in a new light now and I'm so glad she shared her story. It takes a really brave person to speak up and inform her class and let them in on something so personal. The mood in the class today is one I can't explain - everyone could just feel her pain; she was shaking as she told us. I've learned a lot from this experience to say the least... I don't like to date, but I guess when I finally get over myself and join the rest of the college kids, I will be very cautious of the warning signs. And I'm not saying I'm going to think that every guy I meet will beat me or anything, I guess I will just pay more attention. It happens to so many women and they don't report it because of a strong religious background, or because they think they can make it work, etc. The bottom line is that it's wrong and unnecessary and nobody should ever be subjected to that.