Becoming a Woman
When I was young
I never had any lessons in how to become a woman
Maybe my girlfriends were supposed to tell me those things
But no one did
No one explained to me the science behind it all
No one explained to me the blood you have to deal with
Every month
No one explained to me the potential pain
Having it feel like there are little people inside you
Like little elves
Just kicking at the insides of you
No one explained to me that this is the beauty
Of being a woman
I thought women had enough to fight against to begin with
Now that I am looking back
That is what I think now
But I didn’t know that then
My health education classes talked about organs
That were drawn
(You wouldn’t want the kids to actually see this)
That were displayed on a slide projector
Ah, the beauties of modern science
We can make images of genetailia look huge on a screen
It’s a shame you can’t do that in real life
Ah, well, you can always fantasize
The health education classes explained these details
To children that were not interested
When children think that something doesn’t relate to them
They don’t care
Well, neither do adults, come to think of it
But that is another story for another time
These strangers were talking about something inside of us
They were talking about how it worked
No one was listening
One day I noticed
When I was sitting in my bedroom, reading a book
There was blood on my pants
So I guess the process had started for me
So I went downstairs
Told my mom I needed some pads
She said she would buy some right away for me
That was all the talking we did about it
I mean, that is what I took a health class for, right?
I never got a talk about the birds and the bees
I never got a talk about how to stay away from boys
well, the boys weren’t calling me anyway
How, as a parent, do you start this
How do you start a talk like this
How do you know what to do when raising a child
Maybe you just hope that everything works out okay
Maybe you just hope that she knows what to do
Maybe you just hope that she becomes a woman
Copyright Janet Kuypers.
All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.
|
