I just had to pause working to post this.

A girl who is 9 years my junior and living near my province chatted with me to tell me that she’s going to kill herself because her boyfriend left her just a few weeks after they first made love. I asked why, and she said she can no longer be with another guy because she’s damaged. I instantly thought that maybe she’s pregnant, and I asked “are you going to keep the baby?”. She wasn’t pregnant, she said, only that she knows that no one will want her anymore because she already lost her virginity to the guy.

Given my liberated point of view, I know I could have told her to get a grip as soon as she said that, but I didn’t. Instead, I felt stricken and shocked. I found myself getting sucked in by a memory hole and suddenly, I was 18 again, standing faced down and crying in front of my boyfriend then. My first…