I wasn't always this way...

It's funny. Some people are "girly girly" from the start. When they were little, they loved frilly dresses and pretty bows and the sort. Some of us weren't so delicate and dainty always. Sure, maybe we had tea parties with our dolls - but once we turned 5 or 6 and realized that there was more to life than that - maybe we said goodbye to the pretty dresses and such. This is my case, actually.

By the time I was school age - I was pretty adamant about dressing myself. I see photos of myself in plaid pants and striped shirts, often inside out and backwards, and I ask my Mother "what was WRONG with you, letting me out this way??". To which she gently reminds me that it was I who picked my outfits and dressed myself, despite her pleas to let her dress me in pretty dresses. She has often told me that she would send a note to school with me, to let the teacher know I was insistent about dressing myself and that she wasn't really a bad mother. Nurturing my independance, so to speak.

I also was fascinated with insects, worms, wildlife and animals of all kinds. I actually wasn't very nice to bugs....not to be mean to them necessarily but more of an experimental nature. I won't go into details of what I did to bugs, but let's just say that it all stopped by age 10. Since then, I've always had this fear that I was going to come back as an ant or grasshopper someday and be tortured - so I'm always, always nice to them now. The stray carpenter ant that makes its way into the house during the rainy season? I scoop him up and bring him back outside because, clearly - he's confused. He doesn't want to be indoors!

I rode BMX bikes with the boys in my neighborhood; every Saturday we'd ride our bikes to the local BMX racing track where kids from all over the state (and some out of state) would compete. I didn't own a BMX bike - I had a regular 10 speed and wanted to race so badly. So my friends surprised me, and built me a bike - it wasn't the prettiest, but I was proud of it. I only won one race - but to have been able to gain the respect of my guy friends - was more valueable to me than any medal.

There are many examples I could give; these are just a few. I grew into my femininity. It may have always been there by default, but I didn't really appreciate it much until later in my early twenties. I've always sort of been a "guy's girl" - and I'm proud of that. I'm also proud of being very girly girl at times - but when the circumstances arise, that tomboyish personality in me rises to the challenge.

I'm sort of glad that I am both soft, and spirited.
We are who we are. I think it's most important to embrace that, than worry about how we wish we were...