Woman + or -

 On my walk tonight with my dog, I figured out that I have not been honest with myself.  I am trying my hardest to be a better woman, but it is hard when I am not being honest with myself.  Now I am a woman, I know big shock, and for the longest time I found that to be a negative.  Now before you jump down my throat let me explain.  Growing up I was the only daughter and had 2 older brothers, my parents never and I mean NEVER told me that I could not do anything because I was a girl.  In fact when I would try to use that as an excuse I would have to do twice as much.  That is why I viewed being a woman as a negative because to me if you thought of yourself as a woman you thought of yourself as a high maintenance, tea drinking, have to wear makeup and hair done, never get dirty, type of person.  

When I got into High School this became more noticeable to me by all the drama around all the girls.  Yes I had some very close friends that were girls, but they also broke my heart the most with how they would treat me because this boy said this to me or I liked this boy and so did they.  I found myself hanging out with more boys where they didn't care about who I talked to or if I had the correct clothes on that day.  They mostly were impressed that I could drive a stick and I did not care if I got muddy.

Now in College, my roommate, I have never met until that first day.  She is an amazing woman and she started to show me that being a woman was not a negative at all.  She loved to have her nails done.  Her hair was always done exactly on style and her clothes were always ones you saw on tv.  But this girl would get down and do all the "tom boy" stuff right along with me.  She taught me that you can be both and be happy with who you are.

Next month I will turn 42 and I THINK I have figured out the positive and the negative to my body and me being a woman.  Who would have guessed that it would have taken me 42 years.  And I bet I will still learn so much more.  

So here is to being a woman and excepting all that it entails and to teach my girls how important it is to embrace the positives and the negatives and make them their own and to never let anyone tell them they can't because they are a woman.