There is something about walking around and knowing that no one knows your secret. Everyone just looks at you the same and you try to act the same, but there is always that voice in your head over thinking every move you make and every second look someone gives you. Do they know? Did I see them yesterday? Where they one of the ones? And then you push it out of your mind because you know that would be absurd. There was no way they were there.
That is one of the comforts of being in a graduate program that is one hundred percent female. I didn't think it was possible, but somehow, I willingly chose the one master's program that had zero men. Every day, I am surrounded by the most type A females who are all thinly trying to cover their judgment of every other girl in the room.
When I had first entered this program, I thought that was bad in and of itself. Then it came to my attention that I was also the only one that was not married, engaged, or in a serious long-term relationship lasting at least five years. I was the only girl who didn't have a permanent man by her side.
For a while I felt bad. I knew the other girls pitied me. But then I realized something. I realized that I had the freedom they wished they had. They had had the same lips kissing them for years. They had the same hands touching them the same way they had always touched them. These girls had grabbed the first guy they had dated in high school and hadn't let go since. They may be happy and granted they may have more consistent sex than me, but they would never have the stories or the adventures that I was having right under their noses. In a way, they knew it too. They wanted to pity me, but when you are 22 years old and already married, on some level you are sexually repressed.
They try to compensate. They talk about how many times they had sex with their husband this week, and the wild things they did that one time on their honeymoon. They talk about how perfect and in love they were the first time they had sex and how even though it was awkward, they wouldn't have wanted it any other way. They put on a smile and they try to show that they are better than me because they trapped a guy.