A Must Read: "A Letter To My Son About Consent"

In my hometown this week, it was reported that a girl who went to the high school I graduated from took her own life. She was bullied and tormented with hateful taunts from classmates after a horiffic incident where she was raped by four boys and somehow one of them thought to take pictures as if somehow, somewhere that is even remotely acceptable behaviour. And instead of being helped by the authorites she reported the incident to, the case wasn't taken seriously enough and nothing happened to punish the boys due to an allegend lack of evidence. So life goes on, the classmates who tormented her over an incident she had no control over will weep on television and claim they didn't talk poorly of her.

Our evening news is full of stories of this seemingly sweet girl and what good she was doing in the community and what a lovely person she was. Too little, too late. This girl was failed. By classmates, teachers, school officials, law enforcement, our legal system, and... possibly most importantly of all, the parents of the boys who raped her. The parents who could have taken the time to reinforce how to treat a member of the opposite sex. I am not a parent, so I implore the parents of boys to read this article. All parents actually, it's a sound message.

The article is A Letter To My Son About Consent written by Finn Wightman

Rehteah Parsons was so traumatized by the miserable way her 17 year old world fell apart, she felt her only escape was to end her young life. She has been failed so many times over, and I hope the reports all over the news about justice for her are followed through and that the next time someone comes forward to report a situation it recieves an appropriate response.

Anticipation of Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a big day for me.

Tomorrow marks a day I have been looking forward to for a long time.

Tomorrow... my braces get removed!!

It's been 2 years, 7 months and 7 days. Or 135 weeks, 5 days. Or 950 days. But who's keeping track? Heh.

In September 2010 I had a full set of upper and lower braces put on. I had an underbite, and a jaw that didn't fit in my mouth because it was too wide and positioned too far forward. So, after consultation with my dentist, orthodontist and an oral surgeon, it was decided that I would have jaw surgery to correct my bite and I'd need the braces to move all the teeth into position for surgery, then to adjust them after.

The surgery, in February 2012 was... interesting. I ended up with pnuemonia which made my recovery that much harder. Coughing with your jaw wired shut is miserable. And consuming all my food (read: thin liquids) through a large syringe stuck in the corner of my cartoonishly swollen mouth was brutal.

I can eat most foods now, though my jaw gets tired fairly quickly. I've done everything my surgeon & orthodontist have told me to in an effort to make sure I get these braces of in the shortest possible time frame. I've never popped off a bracket because of eating something I shouldn't have, and I have (by all accounts) taken meticulous care of my teeth and it hasn't been easy. I actually miss flossing (yes dad, you read that right) and I look forward to not brutalizing toothbrush bristles on a regular basis!

So yeah, tomorrow. Eight AM. I feel like a kid waiting for Santa!

Here are my before and after surgery x-rays... before on the RIGHT and after on the LEFT

I'll be sure to share what I eat first... and how my mouth feels!

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