...As much as I enjoyed Part 1 & 2 of my visit back home when I got back to LA (my new home now) there was a lot of work to do. I had my first meeting scheduled with the Director of Strength United only a few days later. It was then that I was asked to join their organization as a speaker and with short notice invited to attend and speak at an advocates meeting that Saturday. This would be a group of students who attend CSU Northridge and volunteer to either monitor the rape crisis hotline or to accompany victims when giving statements to the police and/or getting a rape kit examination. They had yet to have a survivor speak at one of their meetings and the director thought it would be a valuable step in their learning and experience process. It's also always a good thing for me to hear other stories of victims and survivors.
Next I had to add the missing pieces to my website which were the recording of my speech to the Penn students and a logo. For the time being I would post the raw video footage but I wanted to get it edited down at some point. The video was an important part of my website because it added validity to it and as I was reaching out and trying to make contacts they would have a sample of my work to reference. The logo was a bit more challenging for me even more so than designing my website. I was completely out of my element here and didn't know who to hire but I had received an email solicitation a few weeks earlier and then a follow up email from a graphic designer so I googled her and checked out the reviews and took a chance and hired her. This next part was fun because she had a questionnaire for me to fill out so I could narrow down what I wanted and didn't want. Within days I received 4 samples, picked the one I liked and asked her to adjust it a bit and settled on the one you see now. I was extremely happy with the results and surprised how easy it was.
April was right around the corner with a very busy month planned as it is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and I had several requests from colleges to speak at their Take Back The Night (TBTN) events. In the 2nd week of April I would attend the UCLA Clothesline Project speak out and two weeks later I would be the keynote speaker at the CSU Long Beach TBTN event. Just a few days prior I had a meeting with the CARE Director/Counselor for the UC Irvine. This meeting also went very well as she invited me to be a part of their speakers bureau. In just four months I had made a lot of progress and couldn't have been happier. When I started this adventure in January I had no idea what success I would have with it and how long it would take to achieve but by the end of April I had my answers.
My general outlook on life is positive, it was how I was raised but don't get me wrong I had setbacks and rejections. My first real one was a response to an RFP I submitted to be a keynote speaker for the NOVA National Organization for Victims Assistance yearly conference. I let it bring me down a bit for an afternoon but snapped out of it and moved on by the next day. I was later told by a experience professional in the field and one familiar with this conference that they receive many more times the requests than they have the limited speaking opportunities so I felt a little better about not being chosen. I didn't have time to wallow in self pity anyway because May and June would prove to be pivotal...
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