Last week, I published an article which was shared over 1000 times. By the end of the week, this article had a number of views higher than the actual population of Berklee. I received so much response on it, most positive, but some alarmingly negative. Overall, I was touched by all the girls who told me they related. I was absolutely not expecting this reaction to my article. I felt like it was just an isolated incident, or something only a small, select few women felt. It was proven that this is absolutely not the case. The feedback I have received has been so helpful, so I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and reactions, negative or positive, and I wanted to write a response to all the feedback, for everyone to see.

First, I want to reiterate what actually happened, because of the select few who seem to have misunderstood. I was walking down Hemenway street, on the way to a rehearsal at Northeastern campus. I was approached by a boy who talked at me and was clearly pursuing me on the street. The issue is not that a boy was talking to me. I clearly clammed up and was visibly not comfortable, and he chose to talk to me like nothing was wrong. Once he got the message, he followed directly behind me for four more blocks, literally breathing down my neck. Literally, I could feel his breath on my neck. For four blocks. The other part that shook me deep was that this boy had already followed me down the street in the same manner just the week before, and he did not remember doing it. I was not memorable to him. Now, I didn't want his attention at all, but it struck me that his treatment of me, though it made me so uncomfortable and affected me deeply, it was just another part of his day. It bothered me that he was used to making girls uncomfortable and moving along. No, he was not violent to me, nor did he touch me, but the standard I hold for my male counterparts is not just respecting my body and my personal space. I expect them to care about how I feel.

The issue I'm trying to bring up is not this specific boy, because there are so many like him. My specific experience isn't important, although all I can do is write about just that - my experience. The bigger problem here is reflected in the fact that over 200 girls felt the need to reach out to me immediately after this article's release, just to tell me that they finally felt understood, and that I gave so many girls a voice who could not emote how they felt.

The common thread that I saw through all these girls was our inability to verbalize our emotions. In the moment of our various demoralizing experiences, most of us clammed up, and were shocked that someone could say or do such things. When these things happen to us, we freeze, and can't explain exactly what happened, or exactly how it made us feel. This does not make us weak. It makes us human.

A small number of reactions stated that I am victimizing myself, and that only I am in charge of my emotions, and how dare I allow someone else to dictate how I feel? And how could I blame someone else for my reaction? A very select few reacted this way, but it's still so shocking to me. I am not a victim. If anyone knows me personally, that's honestly an absurd idea. I find any excuse to be positive, and I keep my head up in a storm. The people who called me an 'attention whore' are only saying so because I wrote this article. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But your opinions are based around the fact that you do not know me, you were not there, and you didn't see or feel what I felt. I'll admit, I also have no idea who these people are. But they're choosing to conveniently look past the real issue that this article was based around. While we are all part of the problem, their dismissive mentality is especially dangerous, and I urge them to consider the issue, excluding me as a factor. I intend to use Odyssey to write about real things, and affect real people. I plan to bring up a number of stigmatized topics, and talk about them. This does not make me an 'attention whore', it makes me a writer.

The last thing I have to say about these few negative reactions is a reaction to a specific statement one person made. I found this statement especially disturbing. One person actually stated that girls are treated poorly at our school because the majority are simply not talented. First, I want to say that is absolutely not the case. Unless you know everyone at this school, unless you have worked with every single person, you cannot prove that mentality. And even if it was true, regardless of a person's talent, or gender, or potential, EVERYONE deserves to be treated with respect. If you live in a world where that is not the case, I feel sorry for you. Living your life where some people are worth less than others, in a world where some people just don't deserve the same amount of respect as others, sounds miserable to me. Because the issue here is not blatant crudeness, it is the underlying, existing basis of disrespect and lack of value for each other.

A few people raised some issues in the way I phrased the previous article. I wanted to clarify a few things. While I stated that I am only writing out of my own experiences, and I cannot speak for other minority groups of Berklee, I did not mean to explicitly exclude other minority groups from relating to this material. I just meant to say that I can only speak out of my experiences - me, as an individual. I wrote this article while emotional, and in a number of places I could have exercised better word choice. If anyone felt excluded from this dialogue because of my poor phrasing, I apologize.

Giving an update on Berklee College of Music's reaction - I was contacted by a large number of supportive faculty. One of which was the Title IX coordinator, with whom I have a meeting tomorrow. One of Berklee's deans also reached out to me, and I plan to involve her in this dialogue as well. Our meeting proved to be extremely helpful. It's extremely important to me that Berklee is supportive of this conversation, and so far that seems to be the case. The number of faculty who reached out and shared their personal experiences and support with me was overwhelming, so thank you to any and all faculty who contacted me!

I plan to pursue this conversation in the future. The most important result of the article for me was affecting so many girls who felt so silenced. We are such a powerful force, it's important to me that we recognize that. For far too long, this specific issue has been dormant. At the very least, I would like to create a platform for women who wish to share their stories and emotions. Boy or girl, this issue affects and involves all of us in some way, and we are all part of the problem. If anyone has any ideas on how to go about this, or wants to get involved, don't be afraid to reach out! Keep your eyes open for developments in the early spring.

Thanks so much for the support and feedback guys! Good luck on your finals!