You make an excellent point about what is actually true and how we feel. In my mid-to-late twenties I used to go out clubbing a lot in downtown Manhattan. Sometimes, being an independent sort, I’d leave on my own and wander home through pretty edgy parts of town.

I look back on that now and wonder what the hell I could possibly have been thinking.

But as a young man, I guess I just felt invulnerable.

I can only imagine how it feels to be a woman and subject to the kind of experience you describe. I’m glad to read the story, because it helps me understand.