To the guy who followed me home last week:
You probably didn't have bad intentions. You're probably a decent human being who thought you'd flirt with the college girl going for a walk on the trail by the local park. You probably weren't going to do terrible things to me and then leave me dead in the literal ditch on the side of the trail.
Here's the thing, though.
You scared me. You scared me in a place that I have been to dozens of times and felt perfectly safe in before.
You rode your bike in circles around me for the entire ten-minute walk from where you caught up with me to the parking lot where you finally went away. You asked me what my name was, how old I was, if I partied at the fraternity houses nearby, if I was a college girl, what my tattoos were.
I didn't want to piss you off -- and subsequently die -- so I stayed calm and stayed pleasant. I kept one hand on my phone and the other in a fist, knowing the whole time that there was no way I could outrun a guy on a bike. I told you my name was Peg because I literally had no idea what to do. I don't think on my feet very well, so I told the truth the rest of the time.
You told me your name, called me "Miss Peggy" and "Miss Star Wars" because I was wearing a Star Wars shirt. You probably thought you were being nice. But the truth is, the cutesy nicknames scared me even more.
I was walking alone on a trail next to a flood plain with literally no one else in sight. If I'd been in a public place, with people around me, I would have ignored you or told you to f*** off. If I'd been with my friends or absolutely anyone else, I would have huddled closer to them and kept moving. The only thing I could think of to do as you were riding in circles around me, was to keep walking for the parking lot as fast as I possibly could.
I still don't know if that was the right thing to do.
They don't teach you how to deal with these situations in school. There is no class on what to do when you're a 19-year-old college girl walking alone with an older man following you on a bike.
Maybe I'm just skittish, even for a 19-year-old college girl. But here's something you should know: if I have the opportunity to cross the street when a man or a group of men are coming toward me, I'll probably take it.
I've been catcalled at before and whistled at before, but I've never been followed before. As soon as you went away in the parking lot, I almost cried. I almost called my roommate, who was 400 miles away, just to see if I was overreacting.
And so, to any other guy who wants to approach me when I'm walking alone, anywhere, even if you mean well, do yourself a favor and please don't. No hard feelings. I'd really rather not be uncomfortable, freaked out or terrified.
I'm not saying this to offend anyone. I'm saying this because I'm a 19-year-old college girl who was scared witless by a guy who followed me on a bike.
