Vulnerability

Because of Andy the world has faded for me. He made me feel vulnerable, degraded. Before that night I had felt as if I were invincible. He has made me feel uncomfortable in my own body, unsafe as a woman for I now know that my mother was right; that no matter how intelligent I am, no matter how well I write, no matter how eloquently I speak, some man can come along and crush me simply by virtue of his superior physical strength. And that terrifies me.

'Don't be so damned defeatist,' a voice in my head admonishes. 'Forewarned is forearmed, remember that.' Yes, my intellect and my emotions are most definitely at war with one another.