It is a hard concept to truly wrap your head around.
One day, you close your eyes to sleep away after an exhausting first day of kindergarten, then suddenly open them in your dorm room after a long night out. Playing with barbie dolls and fighting your mom on taking your Flintstone gummy vitamins turn into decorating empty liquor bottles and remembering to take your birth control. You turn from the life of the party at Chuck-E-Cheese to the life of the party at the frat house.
Me at Four
Credits: Author
You open your eyes one day and you are a woman.
Me at Eighteen
Credits: Author
But sometimes, it sucks.
It sucks to be crying in a bathroom stall in your middle school because you got your period.
It sucks to be called a “b*tch” your sophomore year of high school because you disagreed with a boy in your class.
It sucks to have anxiety rushing through your body while walking back to your dorm at night after studying for hours at the library.
And it REALLY sucks when your mom doesn’t buy your Lululemon online shopping cart.
Perspective is important. We all have a different perspective as to what it means to be a woman and I believe that is one of the most beautiful aspects of it. What being a woman means to me will be different to a woman who is a lesbian, then it will be different to a woman who is transgender. Regardless, we do have a commonality, we are all women. You do not have to let womanhood be a dark, stormy cloud. You can choose to create a rainbow.
What makes growing up so difficult is learning how the world sees you. It is hard to learn how the world works and views you as a woman, the sudden moment when society turns you from a sweet, innocent eyed girl into an object the moment you grow boobs. Allow yourself to create your own version of womanhood. Whether you are feminine or masculine, somewhere in between or neither, create a woman that you love above all else. It is essential to remind yourself of the great moments of being a woman; the things you love.
I still love barbies as much as I love decorating empty bottles of Pink Whitney.
I love calling women pretty when I pass by them on the street.
I love going to the gym, thanking my body for every movement it allows me to do.
I love seeing my little sister smile as we reminisce about being little, as I think about how excited I am to see the woman she will become.
I love destroying my dorm room with my friends as we get ready for a night out on the town.
I love praying to my God.
But most importantly, I love batting my eyelashes at my dad until he agrees to buy me the Lululemon cart that my mom shot down (I will shed a tear if I must).
I love being a woman.
I really like your writing style in this blog and how you split it up. It is so relatable, as I often am asking about my lululemon cart too. Growing up is definitely something you can’t really describe in few words, but this blog did it so well.
I’ve had some rough periods lately that make me question whether being a woman is all that great, but it truly is amazing to think about what our bodies are capable of. Women are biologically amazing, and there are so many other aspects of being a woman that we can celebrate. I like that you mentioned the good and the bad.
I love your style of writing in this blog, it is such a fun open letter! It’s so strange but comforting at the same time that no matter how different every woman’s experience in life is (background, religion, race/ethnicity, family, socioeconomic status, etc.) that we can all relate to each other about certain feelings and issues. Most women deal with periods, most are forced to navigate a world of men while looking for her own place in the world, most are finally learning how to open up to the world and be independent, so forth and so on. Even though being a women is still an unspoken struggle, it is so comforting to have such a great community of confident and strong women supporting other women as we all make our ways in the world. Thanks for such a great post!!
I love your writing style so much. I love how you started this blog in shock: wow, time flies by. But by the end, you comfort yourself and readers that being a woman and living life is natural, and you should love every part of it. Perspective is huge. You could live life complaining about every little thing. For women especially, having rough periods, or being the only female in class, can be difficult. Or you can look at it in a positive way. Like you did. I loved this blog post a lot. Cannot wait to read the next one!
I really enjoyed reading this post. Your writing style keeps it engaging to read and the repetition at the end was really meaningful. This post made me think about my experience growing up and how fast it has all went by, and all the good and bad times, and how things have changed so much. I love how you focus on perspective and how you can be the rainbow in a dark, stormy cloud. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
I loved this blog. I can definitely agree that the standards that society holds on women are so much. We are expected of so much and feel like we can’t act like little kids anymore. It feels like once we hit those timelines in our life when we start to change, we are seen as differently, too, but we really are the same girls we used to be. I do not think people realize all of the pressure that is put on us to the point where we question everything we do. I really liked this blog and think it is so important just to enjoy all of the things we are able to do as women because it is an amazing thing.
I love this post. It really encapsulates how women can be so many things – we can find beauty in brokenness, and happiness in simplicity. I would not trade being a woman for the world. Sometimes I feel like its a tragedy being a woman. I wish I could walk down the street at night, or raise my voice without people thinking I’m hysterical, or talk to guys without them automatically thinking I’m flirting. But despite all that, being a woman makes us stronger <3