{"id":3250,"date":"2018-02-20T09:33:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T15:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rctc.edu\/echo\/?p=3250"},"modified":"2025-02-13T15:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T21:01:57","slug":"i-didnt-want-this-to-happen-to-anyone-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/i-didnt-want-this-to-happen-to-anyone-else\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I didn’t want this to happen to anyone else’"},"content":{"rendered":"

RCTC athlete shares story of dating violence<\/h2>\n

Lydia Hansen
\n<\/b>Editor-in-chief\n<\/p>\n

Nearly three years ago, RCTC athlete Micah Jeppesen became a victim of physical abuse by her then boyfriend of one and a half years. Now, she\u2019s motivated to make sure no one else has to go through what she did and can recognize the signs of an abusive relationship before it gets out of control.<\/p>\n

\"Micah

Micah Jeppesen<\/p><\/div>\n

For the past two years, Jeppesen has teamed up with HOPE Coalition, an organization based out of Red Wing, which serves victims of domestic and sexual violence in Goodhue and Wabasha counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey worked with me after my situation,\u201d Jeppesen said, which involved months of verbal and emotional abuse until things escalated to physical violence in the last six months of the relationship. \u201cThere was a lot of signs that I look at now that I didn\u2019t notice then,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But when her ex-boyfriend assaulted her one evening on their drive home, hitting her, pulling out chunks of hair, and even chasing her when she tried to escape, Jeppesen knew it was time to get out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cut off all ties with him and started looking for someone to help me share my story,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew I really didn\u2019t want this to happen to anyone one else, guy or girl. If they\u2019re stuck in the same situation I was, if they\u2019ve gone through physical, emotional or verbal abuse, I want to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through HOPE Coalition, she has that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I told them I wanted to share my story, they jumped right in, got a fundraiser going and raised money to get a video made.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video, titled \u201cStanding Strong Against Teen Dating Violence,\u201d documents Jeppesen\u2019s experience and can be found on HOPE Coalition\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

In addition, HOPE Coalition gave Jeppesen the opportunity to visit schools, including her own high school in Cannon Falls where she talks about her experiences with abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, telling my story helped me heal,\u201d Jeppesen said. \u201cBut at this point, all I want to do is help other people. When I was in school, we never got the abuse side, so I think that me sharing my story, at least in my school, was one of the first times we ever heard that. If I could tell sixth-graders the signs before they\u2019ve ever been in a relationship, maybe I could help them not get into that relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

While speaking about abuse has become a big part of her life, Jeppesen also has academic and athletic ambitions. She\u2019s currently working to get accepted to RCTC\u2019s Surgical Tech program and played for the women\u2019s soccer team last fall.<\/p>\n

Always an athletic person, Jeppesen was in softball, track and dance during high school in Cannon Falls, adding soccer and cheerleading in her junior year. She felt nervous signing up to play soccer at RCTC after only two years of experience but was glad she did.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I didn\u2019t have a lot of experience, I was accepted into the team, and I got along well with all of the girls,\u201d Jeppesen said. \u201cTraveling around with the team, all playing the game we love, was really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Micah<\/p>\n

She started as a defense player but later moved to play goalie.<\/p>\n

Jeppesen hopes to play soccer again next fall. She\u2019s also continuing her work with HOPE Coalition<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to work with them because there\u2019s so many opportunities with them, speaking at schools and conferences,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re like my connection to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly three years ago, RCTC athlete Micah Jeppesen became a victim of physical abuse by her then boyfriend of one and a half years. Now, she’s motivated to make sure no one else has to go through what she did and can recognize the signs of an abusive relationship before it gets out of control<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}