R-E-S-P-E-C-T. This is what it means to me!

So at my work as I mentioned before that I translate phone calls for the hearing-impaired so I'm always listening to one end of the conversation incognito basically and today I translated one of the best conversations of my life!

I translated for a girl who was probably around my age and she was talking to her mom and she sounded like she was crying and a little angry. I learned through speaking her words that she had just broken up with her boyfriend whom she had been with for a year now and she made it clear that it was just not going to work with them anymore like a million times. She finally mentioned why. She said it was because he wanted to have sex after dating so long. He claimed that the longer they date, the more they should be sexually active. Plus, he mentioned that having sex is something he "needed" to boost his "ego" as a man. But this girl had mentioned that when they started dating, she didn't want to have sex until they were married. And so when he said all this to her, she again reminded him that she would not have sex with him because they weren't married. But he didn't care and she claimed he won't change his mind and she won't change hers so it was over. She said all this with bravery in her voice and eventhough I couldn't see her, I could totally picture the tears rolling down her face as she said all this. She metioned that she was angry and upset and in that moment I wished so bad that I could just give her a BIG hug and say, "Good for you!! You are so tough and amazing!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, that right there was an example of true respect for yourself. I can tell you right there, I can imagine if I was in that situation, it would be VERY difficult! Being with someone you clearly like almost every day for year is a LONG time and a lot of emotions are made in that time so having to say no to someone whom you've made a connection with like that would be VERY difficult! I personally believe in having sex after marriage myself because I've seen many advantages to it but it wasn't just not having sex that made me see the respect in this girl. It was the fact that she wanted to protect something she thought was special about herself. Many times, especially in our youth, we tend to lose our dignity because we want somebody to approve of us and when that person is out of our lives for whatever reason, our hearts are broken and we tend to beat ourselves up over it. This girl didn't let that happen. Yeah she was hurt, but at least she did what she knew what was right for her. And that, to me, is R-E-S-P-E-C-T as Aretha Franklin calls it.

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