perhaps you have never been touched by sexual assault
you have never seen someone you love cope with sexual assault, harassment, or rape
you have never been groped
you have never feared being with someone
you have never felt paralyzed, unable to speak out or up to say, no
you have never felt a sort of crippling anxiety
you have never changed your route to the gym, to class, to the library to avoid someone
you have never altogether stopped going somewhere you previously loved to go
you have never wanted to protect your friends, underclassmen from the ugliness of society
you have never experienced physical or psychological pain
you have never hesitated
you have never been called a slut or a whore or have feared being called unthinkable things
you have never been haunted, unable to forget a laugh or a remark or a touch or a smell
you have never had lapses of memory from trauma
you have never been doubted, judged, questioned — though perhaps you have doubted, judged, questioned someone else
and I hope you never have to, that you never will.
