A letter from November 26th, 2020

Dear FutureMe, Today you experienced your first verbal and online harassment. They wrote vulgarity about you, without any reason. After you were doing more than it was required as a student representative, because you liked helping people and I bet you still do. But then this happened. Other people simply joked about it, kept goings-on through the conversation. But you stood up for yourself, when nobody did. And this person kept on saying, in front of EVERYONE on a university group, that it was "just a joke". That "the important thing is to realise when a joke is too much and ask for forgiveness". Nobody said anything to stand up for you, so you did it again and told them that it wasn't a joke, that it was an aggression. That you have to stop BEFORE harassing people. That saying sorry IS NOT ENOUGH. That violence CANNOT. PASS. AS. A. *******. JOKE. He even tried to make YOU feel like you were exaggerating, because he always wants to make people laugh. When you said he should have never done this ******** to you or anyone else, he put ******** IN QUOTATION MARKS, SAYING THAT CERTAIN PEOPLE FIND HIS ******** FUNNY. You weren't even going to reply, but then realised and understood that you HAD TO. Because it was the right thing to do, because you were disgusted and angry and mad at this ******* world that allow insignificant people to say whatever comes through their minds. Nobody stood up for you, they made fun of the situation. So you had to do it yourself. You HAD to do it because someone else could have not been able to do so. You stood for yourself and for those who can't. Today in Italy is also the national day against violence on women, and you've just read amazing and inspiring stories on the L'Oréal Women of Worth program. I hope in five years, you can be someone who inspires other people this way. Maybe you can be nominated in five years. Maybe you have changed many lives, maybe it happened again and I hope from the bottom of my heart that it hasn't. But don't forget that YOU ARE WORTH TO BE RESPECTED, YOU ARE WORTH TO BE LISTENED, TAKEN SERIOUSLY. YOU WILL NEVER EVER LET SOMEONE QUESTION WHO YOU ARE, DEFINE YOUR LIFE FOR A VIOLENCE LIKE THIS. CAN YOU HEAR ME? YOU. WON'T. LET. THIS. DEFINE. WHO. YOU. ARE. From today on you'll fight even more, even harder for your rights, for those that can't fight for themselves. You're not gonna stand here watching this world collapse, and not only for Covid-19. I love you and I am so **** proud of you for standing up.