Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @-Miss_Cris-, Author of "Together"

Slut, bitch, and whore are some words that cut deeper than a dull knife.

Starting high school as a freshman, I was lost. Entering my new school, I saw different cliques. Against the lockers stood the girls who wore short skirts and cropped tops. On the opposite side stood the jocks, chewing gum and spitting in the trash cans periodically.

Of course, they all knew each other. I knew no one. It surprised me. Starting high school, everyone comes from a different middle school, but it seemed I was the odd one out.

Going to my new locker, I spotted a boy who was giving me 'the look'. The look boys give girls when they want to make out with you against the lockers, then take you back to their place.

The thing is, I never believed in having a boyfriend in high school. Hell, I didn't want to lose my virginity at age fourteen. Especially as a freshman. If anything, I would be ready for a boyfriend when I was eighteen.

Still, my freshman year passed normally. I met new people, made friends. No one bothered me. I had my friends, that's all I needed.

Every year, the same boy, let's call him Jason, tried to go after me. Year after year, he wouldn't stop. He tried to kiss me while I was asking him a question for my biology class. Jason was disgusting, and everyone knew it.

Then, by the time I was a senior, at age seventeen, I developed a crush on this new boy, let's call him Josh. Josh was the typical boy who was sweet, caring, and smart.

We talked in class, did homework together, everything that was too good to be true, which it was.

Soon enough, everyone knew there was something between us. He held my hand, we danced together...it was amazing while it lasted.

I didn't think Jason would come back to haunt me, though.

One day, I was walking to class, as Josh left to his class, when someone from behind me grabbed my backpack and pushed me against the lockers forcefully, causing me to hit my head. It may not seem that bad, but my head hit the locker so hard that I couldn't focus.

Next thing I knew, someone was pressing their lips on my own. Seeing blonde hair instead of brown, which was Josh's, I push them away with my vision slowly clearing. Jason stood in front of me with a nasty grin on his face. It made my stomach drop completely.

"Slut." Was the first word to leave his mouth.

Hearing that word almost made me fall to my knees. "Slut" is the worst word someone can call another. Laughter erupted throughout the hall as other insults began to be thrown at me.

"Whore!"

"What happened to Josh? Too slutty for him?!"

These words hurt like a knife. I left my school and went to my car. Burying my head in my knees, I just cried.

People made an effort to constantly stick notes on my car calling me a slut, a whore, a bitch, fat, ugly, dumb. Some even told me to kill myself.

I was depressed for the next months. I didn't know how to handle these hurtful words. I couldn't eat, couldn't focus. It brought me to the point I almost stopped my life short, but - I didn't. I couldn't end my life. I had so much: my parents, my siblings, others that loved me. Throwing that all away would be such a waste.

That's when I found my passion: music. Putting on those headphones changed my life. It made getting through the worst, better. With the music blasting, I couldn't hear the hurtful words.

I finished school, showing up all those others putting me down. The shaming died down after a while. People gave up, realizing I didn't care anymore.

I did break up with Josh, finding out he was a good friend of Jason and helped with this slut-shaming. Knowing someone and being so close, then being betrayed really is a terrible feeling.

Still, even if others didn't think I cared about the shaming - I did. I'm just turning nineteen, and the words are still as fresh as they were two years ago.

Two years may seem still quite recent, but it feels like forever to me. I've moved on. Left my hometown for college - not looking back on the past.