The First Time I Thought, “He Might Rape Me”

Coming to terms with female vulnerability

Photo by Mangostar Studio/Canva Pro

It was when he veered his truck off the road that I wondered if I was going to make it out alive. Up to that point, I’d been grappling with a growing sense of unease, silently cursing myself for getting in a vehicle with a man I barely knew. I was 20 years old, traveling alone through rural Bolivia. I had no phone. No…