eing a woman is tough, speaking from experience, it never really gets easier. We come in all shapes and sizes, have different personality traits and come from diverse backgrounds. We go through struggles that only women can understand, yet we turn on each other the second we get the chance. Women have the ability to stand together like a pack of wolves and shred any outsider to pieces the second we don’t approve of what that person has to say, or how she thinks. We even have the ability to shred an insider to pieces when we feel threatened. We’re such complex creatures that we often don’t understand ourselves. As any man can tell you, we go through a wide variety of emotions on a daily basis, we never know what’s coming next. In commemoration of Women’s Month, I decided to dedicate this first blog of August 2015 to all the lovely creatures we call “women”
n a personal note, growing up as a young girl, I never really understood the dynamics of being a girl and having to fit in. I was an honours student at school. Always doing my homework, in the library during lunch breaks I must add, because I wasn’t exactly what you call popular. I was the girl who would let other children copy my homework the next morning before class. I was also the girl who refused to be part of the “plastics” because I didn’t feel the need to be someone other than what I was naturally created to be. Sure, there were very few, if any, party invites and many confusing moments as to why I had to be different. My mother, however, always told me it’s better to stand out and make your path than to follow the crowd.
o this day, that rule still applies to me. I prefer it that way. Had I decided to wear the same casual clothes on Casual Friday’s as everyone else in the popular group, joined the cheerleaders to be liked by all the boys and started playing netball just to fit in, I’d never have decided to set out on my own and travel the world right after finishing high school. I never would have decided to leave public school at the age of 16 and do homeschooling on my own, finishing school a year early with flying colours. I certainly would not be where I am today, because every choice you make has a consequence. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to be a cheerleader because you enjoy team spirit, then you cheer your little heart out. If you want to play netball because you have good ball sense, then you do that! Do it for the right reasons though and make the right choices.
t’s like playing chess. Chess, it has ruIes, pieces, rooks, knights, bishops. Each move you make has a reaction and consequence, positive or negative. Women, however, have no rules. We move in unpredictable ways, but it makes us interesting! We’re strong, we endure things men weren’t built for, we love passionately and have a will of our own. How united and strong we would be if we only saw the best in each other and fought so passionately for each other as we do against one another. How strong we would become if we stopped taking advice from the tabloids about which clothing size is appropriate, how one size fits all and when your body doesn’t fit you feel the need to punish yourself by degrading what God made. How there’s a certain type of “beautiful” and anything less than that requires plastic surgery and botox. We would be a force to reckon with if we backed each other up and supported one another to become the best version of what we were created to be, not whom society thinks we should be.
his Women’s Month, I want to challenge you to become a womanly force to be reckoned with, not on your own but as women united. To raise strong, confident women. Confident in their own skin, confident enough to walk next to the crowd if need be, and confident enough to know that the tabloids don’t always know what they’re talking about. That one size doesn’t need to fit all and that you’re so much more beautiful when you approach life with a soft heart. The world has enough tough women, we need soft caring hearts, because although we were naturally created to be strong in order to give life, we were also made with the intent to nurture.
