It was 38 years ago this week – and it still feels like it happened yesterday.

I was hanging out with friends on an unusually-mild late March afternoon in the small town of Newman Grove, Neb., when the older brother of a classmate happened along and took my bicycle for a ride. When I asked for him to return my bike so that I could go home, he offered to give me a ride.

Instead of going home, though, he drove me to a place behind the local swimming pool . . . and stole my innocence.

I’ve tried to forget that experience many times since then. I’ve tried ignoring the day, replacing the memory with drugs and alcohol, and doing anything else I could to try and erase that horrible moment in my life from my mind.

I’ve second-guessed myself for years, wondered if there was something else I could have done. Could I have escaped this monster and still come out of the experience alive? What if I had done this differently . . . what would have been the final outcome then?

For a lot of years, I chose not to talk about it. Better to act as if it never happened than have to revisit and re-create the events in my mind. It was bad enough dealing with the nightmares, the bedwetting, the bullying and all the negative experiences I was going through without actually coming out and talking about it.

Even if I would have, it would have been difficult to talk about surviving a sexual assault attack. Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, sexual assault was not discussed openly – and especially if the target happened to be a boy. Boys NEVER get sexually assaulted . . . they’re always the perpetrators of the crime.

Thank GOD times have changed.

We still have a long way to go as we advance in the 21st century, but it’s becoming a lot easier for those of us who are survivors of sexual assault to talk about our experiences, express our emotions and drag our perpetrators out into the light of the criminal justice system to make sure they are punished for their crimes and carry the shame and the stigma that goes with being a perpetrator of a sex-related crime with them for the rest of their lives, much the same way we must carry on through life as a survivor of sexual assault.

This April, I’m speaking out about my experience and encouraging others to Tell Someone, Anyone and Everyone about sexual assault. I’ve taken a break from preparations for my speech to write this blog entry and encourage everybody to take a stand against this crime – especially if you’re one of those who have had this crime become a part of your life.

There is a lot of work that has yet to be done in this country to put this crime on the front burners of our legislators and criminal justice officials. As more and more survivors come forward and share their stories, it’s becoming more and more difficult for people in courthouses and state capitols across the country to ignore this crime and the impact it leaves on those it touches.

I won’t ever be able to undo what happened to me behind that public swimming pool in the spring of 1976 – and while we can’t go back and change what happened yesterday, we can look forward to tomorrow and work to make sure experiences we survivors have been through are dealt with and those who would commit these horrible crimes are given the proper judgement due them.

If you want to share your story with me, shoot me an e-mail at mike@mikeycproductions.com.