By Abby Haag
Focus
Midland HS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was walking to a bakery in Greektown with my mom. He was in a taxi. He told me that the leggings I was wearing made my legs look hot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tried to ignore him. I told my mom it was fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was walking to my car in the Target parking lot. They were leaning on the hood of a car and yelling at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I kept my head down and gripped my keys a little tighter between my fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was walking by the river in Detroit with my family before we went to see Come From Away. Two men felt the need to tell me how nice my dress fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was 16. It was my favorite dress. I haven\u2019t worn it since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was in class. I was talking to one of my friends about how the
jeans I was wearing fit too tight around my waist. He came up from behind me and told me that the jeans looked good from where he was standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt sick.
I wanted to go home and change my clothes. I felt violated and I felt unsafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following year I had to pretend everything was fine when I had
to see him every day in a different class. I said nothing when we were forced to be partners for a project. What was worse, it was in a class that
I loved. I looked forward to going, it was the highlight of my day. But every day we had to work together, I counted down the minutes until I could get away from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was polite when he would comment on the fit of my clothes or how in shape I was but in reality, I was angry and scared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt like if I told anyone what happened and what was continuing to happen they\u2019d disregard it. I\u2019d get told to ignore him or, even worse, I\u2019d get told I was doing something to provoke him and that all of this was my fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I kept my mouth shut. I did my work. I pretended everything was fine. A few times I tried to confide in my guy friends who were in the same class. I thought maybe they could help or tell him to stop, or maybe, I just wanted to prevent them from saying the same things to other girls. They were quick to dismiss me however. \u201cHe\u2019s just a weird dude, don\u2019t let it get to you,\u201d and \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t do something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s easy for people to tell me that I should have tried harder than that. But they weren\u2019t the one who would have had to go tell a teacher and hope to god that they\u2019d be taken seriously. They wouldn\u2019t have to deal with him if he found out I told someone he was harassing me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
School was supposed to be a safe place. But I didn\u2019t feel safe. How long would it take for the harassment to turn into something worse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luckily, I didn\u2019t have to find out. School closed down in March. He graduated in June. Even now, a year later, the things he used to say to me intrude on my thoughts. I remember how he would try to touch my hands or my shoulders, and I can\u2019t shake the sense of dread that he instilled in me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In writing this, I have been able to process what happened more than I was before. Not just the things he did but the words of strangers that I still carry with me too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s hard to really come to terms with something traumatic that happened to you when people keep telling you that it wasn\u2019t traumatic. I\u2019ve heard the line, \u201cCome on, he didn\u2019t mean it like that, it\u2019s a compliment\u201d too many times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it\u2019s a compliment then why doesn\u2019t it feel like one? Why does it make me feel disgusting? Why does it make me feel like my autonomy is at risk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I implore people to stop telling victims how to feel about the things that have happened to them. Believe victims when they come to you and ask for help. I know that if someone had done either of those things for me, I might have done more to protect myself and others that I know were going through the same things.
It isn\u2019t enough to say that you\u2019d never do something like that. It isn\u2019t enough to tell someone that it\u2019s okay. Because it\u2019s not okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like many others, I grew up watching High School Musical. I remember wondering what it would be like when I finally got to high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What color would my prom dress be? What would it be like to go to parties on the weekends with my friends? Most of all, I wondered what my senior year would be like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always imagined it to be as exciting and joyful as it was for the Wildcats at East High.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now that I\u2019m a senior, I don\u2019t think Troy and Gabriella could have ever prepared me for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know how long it was after those first two weeks of As it turns out, yeah, I got to get back in the pool; yeah, I got to work on the paper; yeah, we got the opportunity to go back to school. But none of it is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s quieter everywhere I go. It feels emptier somehow. I feel emptier. Nothing is as joyful as it used to be and, in turn, neither am I. Instead, I\u2019m just tired and sad all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I try to be optimistic. I try not to feel bad for myself. But I can\u2019t help feeling angry and sad and generally awful about everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It feels like I have been working toward this moment for my whole life. All of the hours I had spent bent over a desk doing school work, all of the stress and the tears, it was all for this, to get here, my senior year of high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was supposed to be having the time of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People tell me to be grateful for what I\u2019m able to do and that I shouldn\u2019t be upset because there\u2019s nothing I can do about any of it. Please, believe me when I tell you, I am so, so, so outrageously grateful for the teachers and coaches and administrators and anyone else doing their very best to make this as good a year as possible, but I know what I\u2019m missing out on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I see my memories on Snapchat from homecoming last year and from championship meets and football games. I know I won\u2019t get to do it one last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s so frustrating to look back and realize how much I took for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe, if I would have known it was my last SVL, I would have left more in the pool. Maybe, if I would have known it was my last homecoming, I wouldn\u2019t have left early. If I would have known that all of these lasts would happen without my knowledge, maybe I would have done things differently. I feel so ridiculously selfish whenever I complain about any of it, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People are dying, people are losing their jobs, people are being forced out of their homes and here I am saying \u201cWell I can\u2019t go to football games!\u201d My struggles are so insignificant compared to everything else happening, I know that, but I still feel like I got cheated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not going to say something stupid like \u201cBut it\u2019s not all bad! We just have to keep our heads up!\u201d because every time someone says it to me, it feels like a slap in the face. Because if I\u2019m being honest with myself, it\u2019s pretty thoroughly awful from where I\u2019m standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I keep thinking, Why me? Why us? Why now?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of me wishes that this was happening to someone else. But another much more rational and much less selfish part of me knows that I wouldn\u2019t wish this on anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I just want the senior year High School Musical promised me. But I know that it\u2019s not the one I\u2019m going to get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st Place Each entry must:<\/p>\n\n\n\n FOR ONLINE ENTRIES<\/strong>, submit the URL to one column in the URL field and the other in the Additional Information field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judges want to see the writer\u2019s consistent quality in more than one column. A student media outlet may submit a second entry in this category, but it may not be written by the same columnist. <\/strong>Columns related to sports must be submitted under the Sports Columnist category. Submit a PDF of the print pages on which the columns were published or the URL to the columns on an online news site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By Abby HaagFocusMidland HS Not a compliment I was walking to a bakery in Greektown with my mom. He was in a taxi. He told me that the leggings I was wearing made my legs look hot. I tried to ignore him. I told my mom it was fine. I was walking to my car […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[57,4],"tags":[176,21],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-featurecolumnist","category-nw","tag-2020-21","tag-division2","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason Laplow","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=11"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1jQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
quarantine that I realized that my senior year wasn\u2019t going to be normal. I felt helpless, and I still do. Helpless because I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d ever get to get back into the pool with my teammates, helpless because I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d get to work on The Focus <\/em>again, helpless because I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d get to go to homecoming or prom. Would I get to go back to school at all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Division 2, News Writing<\/p>\n\n\n\nNW-09. Feature Columnist<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
JUDGING CRITERIA<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n