Why am I waking up every day to hear about another mass shooting or a rape case gone viral? Why am I told to walk with my keys between my fingers and pepper spray in the other hand?

Why am I taught that I need to be sure to cover my drink and know my limits simply, because boys do not? Why do I go to places and events, and instead of being told to have fun, I’m told to watch out? Why am I taught that I’m “asking for it” when I wear clothes that I find attractive? Why are we living in a country that allows tragedy to happen so easily and so often?

In just the past week I’ve heard of so many lives being taken, not only death caused by shootings but by rape as well. As I grow older I notice how often these things happen, I pay more attention and I grow more disgusted by the minute. What if that was my friend or family member? What if I had been at that concert or in that club? What would I have done? Sure, everyone tries to teach you what to do in situations like that when you’re young, but when you’re young you don’t believe that it would actually happen. I can’t believe that I’m becoming an adult in a world that is so full of hate and violence - in a world where guns are so easily obtained by the wrong hands. I don’t want to live in constant fear, but I’ve been given no choice.

Why is Brock Turner serving nowhere near the max sentence he should’ve been given when he was found unanimously guilty for three counts of sexual assault? Why are there fan pages for him that are posting images saying, “It is every parent's responsibility to teach their daughters about the dangers of excessive drinking,” but there is nothing about teaching sons not to rape? I mean, maybe because that should be common sense, yet one in six women have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lives. What’s even more disgusting than that is that 60 percent of these women were under the age of 18. I’m living in a world where I am taught that it’s my fault if anything like this ever happens to me because I must’ve been asking for it, or I must’ve dressed too provocatively, or I must’ve given him mixed signals, and cases like rapist Brock Turner’s only continue to teach women this. Instead of asking the victim what she was wearing and how much she had to drink, ask the rapist to put his hands behind his back and throw him behind bars for the sentence that he actually deserves, not one that mommy and daddy begged for just because their son was a star athlete before everyone realized who he really was.

Why was someone able to get a gun into Christina Grimmie’s concert so easily? Concerts are a safe haven for so many of us. They’re a place where we can let go of all our problems and embrace the music while we dance and sing our hearts out. I’m sure that stage was Christina’s safe haven, and someone took that from her in a split second. I’ve seen so much security when it comes to larger festivals, but when it comes to smaller venues, sometimes I haven’t even had to walk past a security guard. It may seem like a hassle to some people, but after an event like this I hope everyone realizes that it’s necessary. Every event should be treated the same, with security and baggage checks. If a performer can’t even do what she loves without being killed for it, how are any of us supposed to survive in this world?

Why is it that someone decided they knew more about who someone is meant to love than that person knew themselves? Why is it that someone took 50 lives in Orlando just because of their sexual preference, and so many people are agreeing with them? It makes me sick to wake up to this news, and even sicker to see the responses to it on social media. I could never imagine people uttering the words that I have read online, about how they deserved it because they were gay and that it’s such “good news” to hear. Disgusting. Completely disgusting. I honestly have no words for it.

I try so hard to have faith in people, to believe that people often don’t realize that they’re doing wrong and that they don’t mean it, but I am quickly changing my ways.