To the guy who walked behind me on my way to class: You are not complimenting me, you are making me uncomfortable.

I do not know your name. You do not know me. However, you still think that you have the right to yell obscene and vulgar things at me when I’m only trying to walk. I am only walking, not talking to you, not asking for attention, not trying to attract anyone. I am just walking.

Do you think that I don’t hear your comments? Do you think they don’t make me uncomfortable? Your comments are why I refuse to wear shorts, dresses, and why I don’t feel comfortable in anything besides hoodies and sweatshirts. If it were not 90 degrees, I would be in that sweatshirt and avoiding your comments to your friend about what would go on in your dorm room.

I am not an object. I am not here just for you to make crude sexual jokes about at your leisure. I am taking 18 credit hours, working to travel on three separate trips with three separate clubs. I am the recipient of multiple scholarships and run multiple fundraisers and hold positions in multiple clubs. I am working a job to help support myself; I work extremely hard in all aspects of my life to raise myself to a standard of decency, not to be here for you to make blatant sexual comments about in your walk between classes.

To all the men who have ever made comments about me in passing: I do not want to go back to your room. I do not want to hear about what would go on. I do not want to be just a sexual object for you just because I am a woman because as a woman, I am so much more than what you perceive me as, what society may perceive me as.

I am a woman and I do not want to feel insecure because when I walk from point A to point B I am berated with comments due to my appearance. I am more than that. I deserve better than that.