I shouldn't use BoB as my personal writing space, but I want you all to read this entry. For those of you who don't know me very well, I'm a really emotional person. Very hot and cold sometimes. I'll be perfectly fine, and then something will upset me and I'll be sad. Really sad. And some of it has to do with me not knowing how to control my sadness, but most of it is because I care. I care a lot. About no one and everyone. Y'all and my best friends and random people that I'll never see again. People who haven't been in my life for ages, but who I would still sacrifice for.

I say all that to say this:
Tonight Claire, Matt and I were out for our nightly Yahoo gaming festivities. And in the Graffiti room we were in, there was this girl who said, "I think one of the funnyest things to do is walk up to a boy and grab his waistband and say, let's fuck." And first I just sat there like, "what the hell just happened here?" And her name was like, blissful_something2003. And then some boy in there said, "I think the funniest thing is this line of bullshit you're spewing." And that kind of opened the floodgates for me.

So I told her that I don't want to seem like a dickhead adult, but that she needs to think about what she's saying. And what she's doing. And that she's fucking 16, for Christ's sake. And I used the words "impending" and "ramifications" in the same sentence and she said she didn't know what I was talking about. Then she told me I sound like her mom. [Of course I do.]

And I just want her to understand that there are so many boys who won't understand that she was just kidding. And she won't be able to talk herself out of that situation.

And also, [being that we're mostly girls, I'll be interested to see if y'all agree with me,] I think a lot of parents don't take time out to teach their daughters enough. To sit them down and say, "Listen, you have to have respect for yourself, and you have to demand respect from everyone else. 'Cuz life is hard, especially for girls. Keep your head up." My girls will know that. Know to always fight for themselves, fight for dignity.

And I hope sometime before too long that little Yahoo girl learns self-respect before it's too late. Learns that sex and boys aren't all they're cracked up to be. Learns that she should always be number one.

-Tommy Shane Steiner