I remember my science teacher in seventh grade saying this and just being very confused because my mother who was a nurse said it was just a dark red.

It was false then but my seventh and eighth grade science teacher told us that blood was blue. My mom was a nurse so I knew that it was bullshit but was definitely confused because he was my science teacher.

I’m sorry to hear that. Looking back, I suspect it was probably the same or similar with my friend, but I was too young to see or understand it and her and I are coming from upper class neighborhood. These things would be brushed under the rug, not talked about not believed, etc…

Looking back the whole situation, it’s terrifying. I don’t think my parents ever figured that I was in that kind of situation with my friend. We were super lucky that nothing bad ever happened because it would’ve been very easy for us to be taken advantage of and we had no idea.

These guys had to be at least 21 I don’t know how much rent cost there at the time or how much it was to share a house with two or three of your friends, but they certainly weren’t 18-year-old Freshmen and we had to be 17 at best. This particular friend was obsessed with any kind of male attention so for me it was kind of like an eye roll whatever at that time but looking back is like oh my God. Like you said it’s terrifying how normalized it is as teenage girls to get some kind of attention from older men.

This particular friend of mine was obsessed with older men and getting any kind of attention for men she definitely had gotten into cars with strangers, met up with a random men, etc… I don’t think anything bad ever happened to her, but she was lucky In that instance. She wasn’t so lucky because she ended up getting addicted to drugs and overdosed and died In her early 20s.

Not so much as a child, but as a teenager. Once I could drive I didn’t quite have the same level of supervision and was really really able to have a lot more freedom. I’m pretty cautious person in general, but had a friend that was definitely not and was obsessed with college parties in high school.

We lived about an hour and a half from a college town so every now and then my friend wanted to drive up there and check out the parties. To be honest, there really weren’t a lot of parties going on. However, she did remember the house that had a party that she had gone to previously, so we would just show up at this house every now and then and hang out with the guys that lived there (party or no party).

Here we are 16 or 17-year-old girls showing up to these random college guys’ house. Thankfully, nothing ever happened, but it certainly would’ve been easy for something to happen.

I was raised in an atheist/agnostic household. Nobody ever came out and said we were atheist or agnostic, but no one went to religious services weekly or on holidays. There was never talk of prayer or worship or god.

Both my parents came from different religious backgrounds. One parent is Jewish. The other is Christian, though I would argue that their parents were atheist/agnostic as well.

We celebrated the holidays that involved presents, Christmas, Hanukkah and Easter. I didn’t really learn any of their religious symbolism behind these holidays until I was much older and it wasn’t through my parents. Part of it was cultural osmosis, and part of it was curiosity about these religions when I figured out what they were.

My parents basically refused to explain anything about religion to me, even when I was curious just to understand what was being referenced.

We lived in a pretty big Jewish community or so it wasn’t uncommon to get invited over for Passover dinner at someone’s house.

I went to Synagogue with Jewish friends and church with Christian friends. My friend’s mother taught classes at their synagogue so I do remember going and learning about Judaism and the holidays there but I didn’t last very long. I didn’t really enjoy it, I remember not wanting to go back in after our little recess/break and watching Fiddler on the Roof.

When I was curious about Christianity and wanted to know why my friends went to Sunday school or church on the weekends, my mother took me to a Unitarian church. We didn’t attend for very long and I don’t remember being particularly interested or involved in any of the activities they were doing for the kids.

Now I would say, I am firmly an atheist.