Standing on the stage in front of USF community members, a speaker, who chose to remain anonymous, spoke out about being assaulted by their best friend when they were 16 years old.

“He asked me if I bled, and I said ‘Yes,’” they said. “I thought he would be sympathetic, but the words he said will spell out in my dreams forever: ‘Good, I did my job right.’”

The speaker said they will always be in “physical and mental pain” because of their aggressor.

“I’ll never be able to hear those words without flashing back, still in pain and fearing I was pregnant,” they said.

USF’s “Take Back the Night” is an annual event hosted by the Center for Victim Advocacy and Violence Prevention for sexual survivors to share their experiences, raise awareness and support those in similar situations.

The event was established in the 1970s and first hosted at USF in 2007. Since then, the event has run annually, allowing speakers to share their stories and advocate against sexual violence.

The three-hour event on Tuesday opened with American Sign Language Bulls and Rocky’s Angels Female A Cappella Group performing songs, including Avril Lavigne’s “Keep Holding On” and Andra Day’s “Rise Up.”

Then, sexual assault survivors shared their stories and support for other survivors.

Related: USF’s ‘Take Back the Night’ allows sexual survivors to share pain, resilience: ‘Recovery isn’t easy.’

Between speakers, a CVAVP staff member would take the stage and read a victim’s story or poem related to the topic, such as “Bone” by Yrsa Daley-Ward, a poem about sexual abuse and the interactions a person may have following it.

The anonymous speaker chose to go up to the stage a second time to add to their story and speak on a separate experience. 

They detailed an experience they had as a 9-year-old, when they found their dad’s collection of pornographic materials.

With the materials, the speaker also found photos of themself and their sibling. They said these pictures were shown to “multiple women” as they came to the house.

“It still messes you up in the same way,” they said. “You still have that same messed-up image of your body, of what you should look like, of how you should act, and that’ll affect me forever.”

After each story, survivors were met with a round of applause, receiving flowers and a CVAVP flyer listing resources.

Another speaker, who chose to remain anonymous, said they were “shocked” by the victim blaming that followed their assault. 

Though they’re not a student at USF, they said they would like to join USF’s CVAVP to use their voice to advocate for other survivors.

They chose not to disclose where the assault happened, but said it was part of a “setup from an organized group of people” to put them in a vulnerable position for their assailant.

“The people that wanted to get me down said that I needed for that to happen to me, that it was good for me,” they said.

After the assault, they faced degrading comments from “friends, family and coworkers,” blaming them for what happened. They said some called them a “muppet” and others asked if they “wanted” someone to take advantage of them.

“The most devastating part of the bullying for me was seeing them gloat as they said things, seeing the look in their eyes like they were excited, and they took pleasure in judging me,” they said.

Related: USF creates new position for employee sexual harassment and discrimination

The speaker said they are just as worthy and valuable now as they were before the assault.

“I’m not dirty. I am intelligent,” they said. “I did not deserve it, nor was it good for me.”

Education against sexual violence is “empowering,” they said.

“There’s never an excuse for sexual violence,” they said. “It wasn’t your fault that a crime was committed against you, and I stand with the survivors.”

The speaker chose to go up to the stage a second time to share that it “felt good” to put their story out because they “spoke from the heart” about the reality of living with a survivor’s story.

“You can be doing anything that you love to do, and sometimes you just don’t get that same enjoyment out of it,” they said. “The second that you sit back down and drop your guard, all of the same things just come rushing back.” 

Editor’s note: The Oracle received permission from the speakers to include their stories. For privacy reasons, The Oracle refrained from providing names of those who requested to remain anonymous.