I just got back from a Model UN
competition conference at Harvard.
Rosegrams are tradition
there (you
buy a rose, write a note and send it to someone) and the director
woul read the messages out loud while distributing them. One
session, I got a
rose. He
started reading the message, which said, "You have
beautiful hair, a gorgeous face, and a hot body. So point of
personal priviledge (what you say when you have a
question), be my date to the dance
tonight?" Which was obviously followed by
"ooooh"'s and catcalls.
But
there was more.
"I have
seen the scars on your wrists and I know you haven't eaten
the entire weekend. I just want to make you feel beautiful
again."
As soon as my director read out the word
"scars"I panicked - my face went blank
and I just kept mouthing "stop
stop" at him. He realized after a second and
stopped, mumbling the rest of the message.
But it was too late, because the
entire
room had
gone silent from their cat calls, and
every single eye in the room was on me as I walked back to my
seat.
There were 400 people in
my committee, and every single person heard that rosegram message
to me being read out. 400 people that I had to continue
working with knew about the scars and empty stomachs.