Celebrating womanhood

Being a woman is a gift in itself. But I only realized this as I grew up and got rid of my childhood dreams of wanting to be a boy.

When I was still in my early teens, I always thought boys were cool and tough, and girls were just plain little sissies. Boys have better toys to play with – robots, cars, swords and guns, while girls were stuck with their plastic dolls and coloring books. And when I had my first taste of my monthly period, the more I hated being a girl. This silly thinking went on even when I was in high school. As I quote one of my answers for the 3 questions meme I did before, “I sported a short boyish hair and was so delighted when somebody called me “‘to!” (shortcut for Toto which means little boy).”

Thank God I got over this period of identity crisis when I went to college. I had a great barkada (group of friends) with different personalities and backgrounds, and they were cool. Having them as my friends really changed a lot of my outlook about ‘boys having more fun’. We gave our best in our studies and had fun going out too. I realized that even girls can be smarter than guys not only in Logic but in Calculus as well. I discovered something girls have that guys don’t, and that’s their innate womanly charm and wit. I learned that a guy can behave as a true gentleman when a lady puts value in herself. Guys help you a lot, they carry your things, they lend you a hand with your homework, hand you their jackets when it’s raining and stuff like that.

Even after I graduated and worked in a male-dominated environment where it involved on-site visits and inspections, I learned to accept my own limitations and affirm my own strengths as a woman.

I realize that guys help ladies not because they see them as helpless and weak, it is simply a gesture of caring for the needs of another human being. And women help men in their own ways too. It’s the usual give and take relationship, a perfect example of synergy, since men and women have their own strengths and weaknesses.

As one of the toughest women we know, Mother Teresa, said,

What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.

Women are not only creatures belonging to the fairer human species, they have their own unique contribution to society, in parallel, and hand in hand, with men.

As a woman, I know there are a thousand reasons to rejoice in being one.