I stayed with him for two years because “friends” made me believe that I was so ugly and unwanted that no one else would ever date me.

I remember in high school, I was in a long-term relationship with a boy. I stayed with him for two years because “friends” made me believe that I was so ugly and unwanted that no one else would ever date me. I was told that I was lucky to have him, and the only reason why I had him was because he wasn’t “their type”. When I developed feelings for another boy, I decided to do the right thing and end this long-standing relationship, even though I was afraid to. I was labeled a slut, lost most of my friends, and most of the school seemed to have an opinion about my leaving the first boy for the other (people I didn’t even know were voicing their opinions about my actions). What business it was of anyone’s, I’ll never know. The relationship with the new boy looked destructive because I was so constantly looked down upon that I became reclusive and only hung out with him. My parents worried about his influence on me. They didn’t realize that he wasn’t the one causing the behavior, it was everyone else. My friends, my peers. It’s a good thing I didn’t put much weight in people’s thoughts about me. I married that second boy after four years of dating, and we’re now going on our sixth year of marriage. We have a wonderful son and a roof over our head. I look back and think how easy it would have been for me to have given up on him, or never tried at all…just because of bullying and slut shaming from the very women that I had put my faith and trust in.