My Story

Please take my mistakes and learn from them so you don't have to make them, you might not get as lucky as I did.

Hear this and learn, please.

My name is Sam. I make mistakes quite often, more often than I'd like to admit, but they happen. as a couple of examples, I once drove 40 miles to go to Halloween party the day after I got my license and the ONLY rule I got was; Do not go outside city limits. And that's exactly what I did. I stayed out until 4 AM when my curfew was 10:30 PM, then I snuck out the next night.

But this is by far the worst thing I've done. Social media can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be used as a terrifying way of communication and bullying and online stalkers. This moment that I had, this moment of loneliness, sorrow, self-pity, I took it upon myself to go and meet someone I had met on an online dating app. I'm 16, the app only allows 18+. How did I get on there? It's connected to your Facebook and when I got my Facebook, I was too young to sign up on the site, however my mom decided it was okay for me to have one, so I used my birthday, but my older brother's birth-year. Now, this night is a special one: it's not my birthday, not Christmas, not any kind of religious event, not a holiday. Well, I guess it was. New Years Eve. 

I wanted to go out and party, but all of my friends weren't going to party, so I gave up on them and went to the dating app, where I knew people would choose to "hang out" with me. I could handle myself, I'm an average height, athletic girl who's smarter than she looks in the means of combat. She's been in fights before, she knows what to do. But, not when it comes to a 6'3" man with a strong build when she's alone and vulnerable.

I was going to bring a switchblade knife, mace, and set a tracker in my phone for when I left to meet this guy who's 46 miles away from home but, I couldn't find my mace, I couldn't find a knife and I just forgot about the tracker in my phone. My plan was to go and meet this guy at his apartment, wait until the ball drops then go home. All was actually going pretty well, the guy is cute and nice and wasn't taking advantage of me at all. But then midnight hit, then New Year's kiss, or make-out, happened and then I stayed, lost track of time, then started to get tired. As soon as I got tired that's when the realization of what I was doing was hitting me. But it wasn't hitting me, it was lightly tapping me, so to speak. I knew what I was doing, but I didn't care. I fell asleep.

Then I woke up. 9:00 and 20 missed calls from police departments in both my hometown and the town I was in, with friend calls, and my mother and father worrying furiously. I texted my mother back and she called right away asking where I was and saying that the police were out looking for me. Everyone around me was worried sick. I was a 16 year old going to meet some random guy off of the internet while I lied to my parents and said I was with friends. I'm lucky, my parents and friends are wonderful and care for me, and I didn't go to a serial killer or rapist's house. I dodged a bullet.

I left his apartment, met the police officer that was outside my car and talked to him, while my mom was on the phone with me. He asked if I was okay, nothing was wrong, who was I with, how old is he, especially how old he was. His name, which apartment number, which floor, ect. I gave all of the information that I could. Then I blocked the guy I was with and deleted the app I was on. My mom called again saying she didn't want me driving home, so I parked behind a Starbucks and napped/cried in my backseat until my mom and dad came to get me. 

There was a knock on my window, then the door opened. My mom stood there, asking me to get out. I did, then stood there and hugged her for a solid 5 minutes, then my dad. "A great way to start off the new year." I cried. Then I didn't stop crying until late that night. Throughout the day, I reassured my friends that I was okay, and thanking them for making sure I was safe. Then my closest friend, the one I said I was with but wasn't, questioned me, as well. She told me how scared she was but that her family is still there for me. They are very religious and don't even let their oldest daughter, the one I'm friends with, date a boy because he isn't of the same religion, but the fact that they still care for me, even after what I did, makes me never want to do anything remotely like that ever again. The amount of people that were texting me asking if I was okay is what really started to make me cry. My friends and parents and family friends and relatives all care for me so much and they thought that I was gone. Breaking everyone close to me's hearts one by one. THAT is why this will never happen again. this is 100% true and I am writing this now so that others' will hopefully read my story and not do it for themselves. People care for you, people are worried about you. You do no wrong, but you do. I do. We all do. It's the severity level that's concerning. PLEASE, tell someone, anyone you can trust, what you are doing at the VERY least. If not, don't do it at all. It's not worth it. 

I was case #5 of 2017 in my state. At 8 in the morning, I was #5. That means that 4 other people fucked up before I did. Please don't be me or those other 4 people. Be safe.