Memory- sixteen years old. My friend Alyssa comes to school with a big purple bruise on her arm. I have never seen Alyssa so angry before. She won’t tell us what happened and soon, as the anger fades away, she can’t stop crying. I am so scared. I cannot comfort her… I just don’t know what to do. I fail her as a friend. Alyssa moves away from her home the next day. We never knew quite what happened. She says she will never speak to her father again.

Memory- seventeen, perhaps eighteen years old. My best friend Tina and I are sharing our secrets. We are excited- we have not seen each other since I went away to college. She is not telling me something. I can feel it. Finally, she blurts it out. We are outside and it is cold. Her lips are turning purple as they always do when she’s cold. She tells me of her rape. Her eyes turn red and water slightly in the light. I do not know what to do; I do nothing. Then I hold her. I feel as though I should have known and all I know is that I should have been there to stop it.

Memory- I am finally eighteen. I am as angry as I have ever been in my life. The anger is washed away by the insanity of another emotion… fear. I am afraid of what I am capable of. I have never intentional had the desire to kill someone in my life. The realization of what I want scares me and chills me to the core. It is Christmas Eve. The phone rang in the middle of the night and the next thing I know my brother comes home with a reddish-purple stain that bled straight from his battered nose to his shirt. Charges are filed against his girlfriend’s father. I never forget that night. I will never stop seeing that stain.

I hated purple. The color brought up so much pain. These stories aren’t the half of it. Unnecessary pains, for things that I never should have seen happen to my family and friends. I have always thought this and have had so much contempt for the color. Looking back, I guess I was sick and I didn’t even know it. I didn’t hate the actions, I hated the color. Then I tried out for the Vagina Monologues. Funny thing is I never knew that it would have such an effect on me. I didn’t even know what it was about. But then, as all the good things in life do, it surprised me. I made friends among people I hardly knew. We shared secrets that I have never heard or told. It warmed my heart. Then the show came. We had to wear purple and, like so many times in my life, purple was the color of power. But it was my power this time. It stood for all the wrong that I saw and screamed for every girl who had seen the same or worst. So, this year, I want the color purple to be the next big thing. I am tired of seeing it connected to so much hurt and now that I’ve seen the good of it… I want more.

So color everything purple. Color the trees, the sky, and your hearts. Help me heal. Heal yourself.