#SafeLove
SAFE LOVE
My name is Tracy Nxumalo, and I almost didn't tell this story. I was six when a man with a knife taught me what bodies are for. I was twenty-eight when a man with glasses asked me out for dinner. I thought I knew the difference. I thought I'd be careful. Then he paid the bill and I sat in his car wearing nothing under a tight black dress and felt for the first time in a long time that I had chosen something. He never lied about being married. He just never told me his wife was the surgeon at the hospital where I worked. For five years I held on. For five years I called what we had safe. This is the story of how I learned the difference between being loved and being kept — and what I did the morning I finally chose myself. Some of you are still waiting to be chosen. I'm writing this to tell you what I should have told the receptionist on the floor. You don't have to wait. You can choose yourself, even now. I'm choosing me. I hope you do too.
5 parts
