By Madelyn Cooper

Key West, Florida, also known as “the paradise of the south” or “the southernmost point of the US,” is a place I have been lucky enough to travel to every summer with my family since I was five years old. 

The Florida Keys have honestly become a second home to me and a safe place. There was a time I had dreamed of getting to live there one day, from the beautiful crystal-clear water, the delicious key lime pie, the scuba diving reef wrecks—it’s truly like heaven on earth.

Unfortunately, this would all change for me in July 2018. 

My family and I were enjoying what could have been a beautiful Key West with temperatures in the upper 90s. But I never could have expected what was about to happen to me.

I was only 16 years old at the time, and of course, at that age, I felt invincible to most things. I was walking down Duval Street, one of Key West’s most popular streets, when suddenly the unimaginable happened to me. 

A homeless man was trying to strike a conversation with me while my parents were taking pictures of the beauty of Key West. 

With me being the person that I am, and as a female, I now realize I need to be much more aware of my surroundings. Although my parents raised me to know all of this, I never thought I would be put in such a situation.

It was my happy place, after all, so I should be able to feel comfortable, right? The homeless man, I am assuming, knew that I was vulnerable to these sorts of things, being 5’0” feet tall and only weighing 100 pounds; he knew that I would frankly have no way to defend myself.

My parents would consider me a girl who never meets a stranger and can strike up a conversation with anyone. Which can be both a good and bad thing. In this instance it was not such a great thing. 

Walking down the streets of Key West, it is pretty easy to get lost in a conversation with someone. I never thought I would have an encounter like this. 

It was truly the most terrifying experience of my life. 

I was mostly horrified at what he could do and say to me next. My parents had ventured away from where I could no longer even see them. I found myself screaming and crying at the top of my lungs. 

During this, the homeless man continued to harass me while making horrific comments about my body, asking me how long I was going to be in Key West.

For some reason, during all of this, I could only think in the back of my mind of the rise in child trafficking cases and hoping and praying that I would not be the next one. 

Unfortunately, instances of child trafficking cases are rising even higher today, and things must change because parents should not have to live in constant fear of what is going to happen to their child if they take their eyes off of them even for a split second. 

Being my parents’ only child, they still tell me to this day that this entire incident made their whole life flash right in front of them. 

My mother tries as hard as she can to not think back to that day, but my father, on the other hand, when we still take our annual trip to Key West, can only ever think of what happened to me. I try not to let it ruin our trips, but frankly, it does. 

In fact, every time I have gone on a trip with my parents since this, it causes me immense anxiety, and I am constantly checking my surroundings. 

The rest of our trip following this, I was quite honestly miserable and couldn’t wait to go back home. But, now when I look back, I tell myself, I was one of the lucky ones.

Some people are not so lucky.

For a while, I was afraid to tell anyone about this, but now I’m not afraid. I want to raise awareness for people who may ever be in a situation like I was.