Down time

I spent 8 hours at school yesterday studying. My brain was so tired after that, but I feel much better about things.

I was thinking about something last night on the way home and I thought I'd put it down here. I was waiting for one of my classes to start a few weeks ago, when a conversation started between a classmate and I. Obviously, she's 18 and this is her first semester away from home. She lives off campus and began telling me about how scared she is about the stalker that has found her. She tells me that he drives slowly around her apt complex and drives circles around the block while she walks to the bus stop. She says she is scared and doesn't know what to do, so while he was following her one day she ran directly to her apt and locked the door (while he watched which door was hers!). Now she wakes up in the middle of the night afraid he's breaking in a window. Of course, things like this just make me go insane with rage.

I didn't tell her my thoughts about how people don't teach their daughters that they have some power in protecting themselves, simply by being aware and assertive. I didn't go into how the stalker gets a sense of power and control my making her scared. I also didn't discuss with her that she had no legal recourse until he actually *did* break into her apt and kill or rape her. No, I kept my feminist convictions under wraps.

What I did talk to her about was the fact that she needed to go to the apartment complex office and let them know what was going on. I told her she needed to get a picture of this guy's license plate so she'd have someone to track, just in case. I told her not to listen to her friends who are telling her "not to worry about it, that he's probably just some harmless guy."

While I'm talking, she's listening with wide eyes and nodding. I'm crossing my fingers that this works for her because *I* don't know what to do next if it doesn't.