Portraits Of Boston: 'I Didn't Do This To Myself'

“I’m kind of a private person. I’ve been working on sharing more because I was molested as a young child and it took me a long…

I’m sorry; I’m still getting used to talking about it. But it’s really good now; I feel so much better after I tell someone. I just told my mom a few months ago, and then I told my dad. I knew he would be so sad. It happened 12 years ago, so it took me a really long time to tell them.

I feel that if I had told them earlier, I would’ve been happier. I think it caused a lot of problems for me. It’s hard to share these things, but it’s so important to not be afraid to trust people — and let go and tell the truth — because it’s the only way you are going to be happy."

“How did you finally decide to tell your parents?”

“I felt that there was this piece of me they couldn’t understand because they didn’t know that about me. I have the best parents. I felt that they were trying to connect and understand, but something was missing and they needed to know it.

It’s a secret but it doesn’t have to be. Even now, telling you, I’m embarrassed for people to know it. It seems that there is an underlying feeling that you should feel ashamed. But I shouldn’t. I didn’t do this to myself.”

Portraits of Boston is a project of independent photographer Ivan Velinov. He is regularly sharing some of his favorite portraits with WBUR. Visit his website to see the hundreds of portraits he has taken on the streets of Boston.