Do you remember Elementary school?

How free we were

How safe

How no one was leering as we walked any which way

How school rules didn't matter

Cause who would do those silly things anyway?

I sure do.

Do you remember middle school?

How it hit like a ton of bricks

How boys started to stare

How teachers told you that you were the problem

You are the problem.

How dress codes ripped apart your expression

How school stole your power

How they destroyed you

I sure do.

Do you remember freshman year?

How you had the hope of a kid but the dreams of an adult

How perfect everything would be cause you were finally old enough to make your own choices

How nothing and no one could stop this from being the best year ever

How guys started to make comments on your body

How they wouldn't stop

How a fraction of a bra strap got you sent to the principal

How you couldn't wait for this hell scape of a year to be over

I sure do

Do you remember sophomore year?

How at least you weren't a freshman anymore

How now you knew the rules

How it was the second year, only two more

How school felt more like a danger than the safety it used to be

The safety it should be

How you wanted to die because it was better than constantly hating yourself

How you couldn't see yourself living to graduation

I sure do

Junior year starts

You've made it this far

You're so close

But this year is worse than ever before

You think back

To how when you were little things were easy

How in middle school you lost you

How in freshman year they taught you the oh so important lesson that it's all your fault

How if you made it through sophomore year you can make it through anything

How three weeks into this year your slipping back to the place you just escaped

But it's not your fault

You

Your body

Your self

It's not the problem

None of it is

How can we teach our girls to respect themselves

To love themselves

And our boys to respect them in turn

If the schools are preaching the opposite?