Father’s Day
Around Father’s Day two years ago, my dad choked me.
During my senior year of high school, I had scholarship offers from 3 different schools and I was making a decision as to which university I was going to choose. I was leaning towards the one closest to home, because that’s where many of my friends were going.
One night, I got into an argument with my father. I yelled at him and he escalated. He came at me and grabbed me by my hair. I remember him shaking me and slapping me. He ripped chunks of my hair out. I was screaming at him to get off me and to stop. He backed off and I told him to leave or I was going to call police. He came at me a second time and choked me against a wall.
I remember being afraid to hit him back or push him off me. I knew that realistically he could put me in a hospital and I didn’t want to further aggravate him. I don’t know if I would call it being in fear of my life, but I was afraid he was going to cause me significant injury.
While he was choking me, I scratched him. He actually stepped away from me to look in the mirror to see the scratch marks on the side of his neck. He was bleeding a little bit. He cursed me out before leaving. Before he left, he told me it was my fault our family was broken.
I couldn’t sleep that night. I was terrified that because he was so angry, he would crash his car and die. I thought it was going to be my fault if something happened to him. I texted him to ask him to be safe. All I cared about was his safety, even after he choked me.
He told me I was the abuser because I scratched him. I was 17 and he’s a grown man.
I chose the university furthest from home the next day.
During my senior year of high school, I had scholarship offers from 3 different schools and I was making a decision as to which university I was going to choose. I was leaning towards the one closest to home, because that’s where many of my friends were going.
One night, I got into an argument with my father. I yelled at him and he escalated. He came at me and grabbed me by my hair. I remember him shaking me and slapping me. He ripped chunks of my hair out. I was screaming at him to get off me and to stop. He backed off and I told him to leave or I was going to call police. He came at me a second time and choked me against a wall.
I remember being afraid to hit him back or push him off me. I knew that realistically he could put me in a hospital and I didn’t want to further aggravate him. I don’t know if I would call it being in fear of my life, but I was afraid he was going to cause me significant injury.
While he was choking me, I scratched him. He actually stepped away from me to look in the mirror to see the scratch marks on the side of his neck. He was bleeding a little bit. He cursed me out before leaving. Before he left, he told me it was my fault our family was broken.
I couldn’t sleep that night. I was terrified that because he was so angry, he would crash his car and die. I thought it was going to be my fault if something happened to him. I texted him to ask him to be safe. All I cared about was his safety, even after he choked me.
He told me I was the abuser because I scratched him. I was 17 and he’s a grown man.
I chose the university furthest from home the next day.
