I'm only a junior in high school, and I've never had a job, so I've never been harassed in the workplace. But just a couple months ago I had my first street harassment experience.

I was walking home from my bus stop, which is on a rather busy road just around the corner from my house, when a couple of guys, probably from my school, drove by and the kid on the passenger seat stuck his head (or maybe entire torso) out the window and shouted a sentence that, from what I heard, kind of went like this: "I WANNA (some verb I didn't hear) YOUR PUSSY!" It took me a couple seconds to process what he said, and when I finally did they were further down the road. I was hoping the the guy who shouted it would get whacked by a branch because he was dangling so far out the window. I kind of felt like crying the rest of the way home. When I got inside I told my older brother what happened by starting with "A couple assholes..."

I decided not to dwell on it, but it still bothers me, and really didn't help much with anxiety around teenage boys I developed after being groped by some drunk guy last February. (Side note: After reporting this to a police officer who took me seriously, she (the officer) told me that this was, in Oregon, Sex Abuse in the third degree.) You see, I really haven't had any sort of sexual encounter in my entire life other than that, I've never even been kissed, (I've just decided to wait until college to even start dating so for now I can focus on getting to college) so whenever something like this happens, it's REALLY uncomfortable for me even though I'm fine with talking about sex. Specifically, before that idiot shouted that to me, I never really thought of my vagina as a sexual body part. Since that that day on the street, I almost feel like it's exposed or something when I think about it. I've felt uncomfortable walking home from the bus now, so I but on my Batman beanie hoping that combined with my thick black coat, it would be really hard to tell that I'm female from a moving car. I look in every car the drives by, while trying not to at the same time, checking to see if there is a teenage boy in the passenger seat.

It's sickening how few people these days understand common decency.