I'm hardly qualified to answer this, but here goes...

At 15, I met the boy. He was gorgeous, seemed to be the perfect gentleman...until he seduced me and took my virginity. (Sorry if that's TMI...) He lived in Georgia, and I in Wisconsin, so after the vacation where we met ended, we continuted a long-distance relationship for almost a year. We got somewhat serious, with him constantly promising to get me away from my hellish life and take me somewhere where we could be together; he even asked me to marry him (regrettably, I agreed), and we'd discussed having children in length. However, in that year, he'd also cheated on me, lied to me, got another girl pregnant, literally asked me if he could cheat on me, and when I told him about my r*pes and m*l*station, he said he'd never have dated me if he'd known that from the start. He constantly told me how horrible and difficult his life was and how easy mine was in comparison. I broke up with him almost two years ago (on my 16th birthday, after he told me he was going to be a daddy), and he continues to call, harass, and basically stalk me to this day (seriously, he called me yesterday). I've told him many many times that there's no way in hell I'll ever be with him again, and I've even had my dad physically threaten him if he didn't stop calling me; yet he persists. I don't know what he wants from me because as soon as I recognize his area code or voice, I hang up, cause I'm done letting him trample over me.

In response to your question (sorry, I was rambling), I was romanticized. This "perfect" boy swooped me off my feet after the hardest period of my life (having my ab*se broadcast to my parents and being in a mental institution for a month), and just made everything a helluva lot worse.

And yes, it still affects me. Other than the "stalking"/harassing, I find it very, very difficult to trust a man (even more so than before dating him, when I'd already experienced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hand of a male I was supposed to trust), because I almost expect to be let down, lied to, and manipulated. I know I probably picked one of the worst guys to "save me", but it reaffirmed my beliefs that guys are not to be trusted...which sucks, cause now that I know a guy worthy of my trust, I don't know how to give it.

Shutting up now...