Rookie Reflections

Is there an exact moment when you know you are a woman instead of a girl, or does it develop over time? I have never felt like more of an adult than I have this year. Instead of measly little choices, there are huge, life-changing decisions to be made. Instead of insignificant, forget-about-them-tomorrow problems, there are issues and hardships that will float around in my head for years to come. There is a lot to be said for becoming your own person, but most of the time, I just want to curl up in a little ball and hide from adulthood.

And why do I have all these negative thoughts in my head about being a woman? Shouldn't I feel more empowered and wiser than my naive teenaged years? If women can be Secretaries of State and military heroes, can't I just shut up about it?


Women
by Alice Walker

They were women then
My mama's generation
Husky of voice--Stout of
Step
With fists as well as
Hands
How they battered down
Doors
And ironed
Starched white
Shirts
How they led
Armies
Headragged Generals
Across mined
Fields
Booby-trapped
Ditches
To discover books
Desks
A place for us
How they knew what we
Must know
Without knowing a page
Of it
Themselves.