If you achieved nothing else today, waking up as a girl took courage. Nothing will change that fact.
Are you not buying it? Let’s take a quick quiz. Check off these bullets if you have ever experienced any of the following?
Endured your period
Woke up in a pool of your blood
Wore white pants while on your period
Bled through said white pants
Tried to hide the fact that you now have period tie-dyed pants
Were thirteen or fourteen when this happened
Seriously, I’m willing to bet one of my kids that it’s happened to 99.9% of us. By the way, if you win my kid, they are college age, so if you can cover those costs, I’d be most appreciative.
But I digress.
Surviving that episode took courage, just as living each day as a female takes bravery. We have fifty million things swirling in our heads, with half of them making us feel guilty or less than perfect. It never stops.
It’s time to take a page from The Book of Man.
We will look in the mirror and say, “Hey, Gorgeous! You are looking fine today! Nice butt, by the way!”
We will run a brush through our hair, wear no makeup, and know that we are enough in our natural state.
We will tell a few Mom jokes, “Did you hear the one about the kids who did the dishes? Go do the dishes!”
We will accept that everyone in our hemisphere will be okay without us having to direct every facet of their lives. If they do ask questions, we will answer with a blank stare. They’ll figure it out or forget about it. Either way, it won’t be our problem anymore.
Courage also comes in the form of being kind to yourself. So one gift I would give every woman would be the power of forgiving herself for being human. Perfection is for Chris Hemsworth and Idris Elba.
Let that fourteen-year-old girl in you know that things got better.