CAL
When i was about 12, i used to love going swimming at the local pool. At the end of the swim, i would always go for a shower and then my mum would be waiting to pick me up afterwards and take me for lunch. It was always a happy memory. On one particular uneventful day, the pool was especially quiet and not a lot of people was about, while i was getting ready to have a shower, i noticed this man who must have came walked after me who kept staring at me, he looked like he is in my dad’s age range and although he was smiling, i did not feel warm or safe, i just felt completely unnerved by this for reasons i did not understand at the time so i shook it off to just my parents always telling me to be wary of strangers. I went to the far end to try and keep my distance but when i came out of the shower, he was standing literally by my cubicle and had his penis out, again smiling. I panicked but i could not move and he asked me if i wanted to touch it. I then started to tear up with fear and ran off but as his position literally blocked my path to my locker, i had to brush past him and he looked like he enjoyed. I will never forget that smirk on this face. I never told anyone because i thought that as a boy, this never happens and that my mum would make a scene and i just wanted that day to end and never talk about it. I felt, alone, shame, embarrassment and guilt that something in the way i looked or behaved somehow encouraged him. Reading the stories on here has made me feel i am not alone and gives me the courage to tell my story. I still get anxiety at a pool and only go when there are classes on where there is plenty of people around after initially skipping swimming for almost 6 months when it happened. I hope this helps someone and the fear does go in time but there should not be any stigma for boys to talk about what happens to them.