As the 10th anniversary of my sexual assault was approaching in May of 2016, I thought a lot about what I had been doing the decade prior. I started writing down my memories from that horrifying day in 2006, and as they took the shape of a minute-by-minute account, I decided to attempt something that (to my knowledge) had never been done before.
This was prior to Twitter’s “thread” feature, so armed only with the hashtag #Kim10, I loaded tweet by tweet in to my Tweet deck, aligning each one with the correct date and time as they happened all those years ago.
What transpired online on May 12th, 2016 still leaves me feeling emotional. I shared my story in detail in a format that was both relatable and time-sensitive. As thousands of people followed along from their homes and offices, alone or with friends, as a fellow survivor or simply an anonymous Twitter user, a community of humans bore witness to the raw trauma victims of sexual violence can face in just a single day.
Please heed the trigger warning below as you recount my first day as a victim of sexual assault.
