When I was driving back to school on Monday, my driver side windshield wiper started coming off so I had to pull over on the side of the turnpike to try to fix it in the rain. When I went outside, my first thought was, well this is how half the girls die on Criminal Minds, at least it wasn’t night-time.

Last year, I had a wallet with a strap that I would bring with me if I went somewhere. Yes, this was in my heyday of binge watching Criminal Minds and I was quite paranoid, but I would swing it around if anyone got too close to me so I could hit them if they got too close.

My boyfriend and I met on Tinder. This is news that I’ll address another time, however, this is something very curious to me. He never tried to find my Facebook, never had a back up plan in case I was crazy, and that’s when I realized guys don’t have to do that. I had three different plans in case something happened and I had to leave because he was crazy.

Men don’t really have to worry about a woman being a serial killer, they don’t have to worry that she will attack them. They don’t have to worry about having to jump into their car at night because someone could be waiting to grab them to harm them in some way. They don’t walk with their keys in between their fingers, knowing that it’s not going to do much good, even if someone was to attack them.

We live in a world that it’s dangerous to be a woman. The number of rapes in the US range from 300,000 (Department of Justice) to 1.3 million (CDC). These statistics could go on an on, again according to the CDC, 1 in 5 women will be raped in some capacity. According to the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, 1 in 3 girls will be sexually assaulted in their college career.  Women don’t choose these statistics, they are an unfortunate reality when you are a woman.

Because I’m a feminist I like to believe that these will change. I like to think that this generation will talk to their sons about not raping women rather than telling their daughters to be careful to not get too drunk when they go out. I like to think that more people are talking about consent and that yes is the only word that means yes. I like to think that we are changing, but why are the numbers staying the same?

It’s sad that we live in a world that I’m afraid to get out of my car on the highway, because who knows when a serial killer is going to drive by? It’s sad that we live in a world that women have to be afraid to walk alone at night. It’s just sad. I don’t understand how people can hurt each other so much.