Standing up for myself

I was at a restaurant having dinner with a couple of my friends. There was a man sitting at a table in the corner of the restaurant. I noticed that he was staring at me and smiling at me for about an hour. I also noticed that he never ordered any food, which I thought was super suspicious. As we were getting the check, he came over to our table. He told me he couldn’t help but notice how “adorable” I was. Right away, I thought the word adorable was weird because it has a younger connotation. He asked me if I wanted to get drinks with him sometime. At first, I didn’t want to be rude so I said I had a boyfriend. He asked me again and started to sit down at the table. Then, I told him I was a minor and he said I didn’t have to go to a bar, and that we could go to a restaurant. He was not stopping and I finally had to say I do not have this conversation please walk away. The ladies at the table next to us stepped in and told him to go away and that I was a minor. While it was not physical, I set a boundary with a strange man and was not afraid to stand up for myself.

- IMPACT Graduate