Most of Administration didn’t seem to believe my story.  Campus Police not so much either.  Why, because I couldn’t give a description of the guy?  Maybe I could identify him and didn’t want to.  Maybe I didn’t want to spend the rest of the year reliving the story.  Maybe you should get over the fact that I didn’t follow “proper procedures” when it happened and just admit that no two students will react in the same way. 

Given that I was the Student Body Vice President and a Student Ambassador, I had to find ways to continue to assure students and parents that their child was safe on our campus all while I continued to feel very unsafe.  I had to appear to be “together” in all of this.  I was so far from being “together” or “okay” that those two descriptives weren’t even in my rear view mirror as I continued to look back on that morning.  I would give Campus Tours and politely but unenthusiastically respond to moms who asked me, “Do you feel safe here?”  What would happen if I said, “No ma’am.  I feel very unsafe here.  I feel like I’m always looking over my shoulder and would it be okay if you dropped me off in Rocky Mount on your way back to Greenville?  

Part of the response of the College to my “situation” was to throw me into counseling.  I remember thinking “but I’m not crazy”.  From Amy, I learned that “if you can put a face on it, you can beat it”.  Oh, I could put a face on it and trust me, my idea of beating it and your idea of “beating” it wouldn’t be the same.  However, after several sessions of talking it out and letting all kinds of other heartache come to the surface– I’m a big fan of counseling!  

In the midst of Amy guiding me through ways of dealing with my psychological damage as a result of all that had happened, the emotional damage was running a little deeper…