Today is our day.
Today is the day we, strong women everywhere, celebrate who we
are, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going. Today we look at all we’ve
accomplished, all we have yet to do, and we celebrate it. Today we turn to the
women around us and congratulate them for their strength, wisdom, power, beauty,
incredible presence and their unwavering love for everyone around them. Today,
March 8th , International Women’s Day, we celebrate us.
We are the nurturers, raised the leaders of the world, and have helped potty
train the great architects of our societies. We’ve held their hands as they’ve crossed
the street. We’ve read them nighttime stories, wiped their tears, and been the ones
they wanted most when they had a bad day. Mothers raise Olympians, teachers,
police officers, researchers, and doctors.
Mothers have raised the world around us.
So, on this day, International Women’s Day, we need to take a moment to appreciate
all the super amazing and strong women around us. Truthfully, we should be
appreciating ourselves, and all the women around us not just for one day out of the
year but on a daily basis… but who has time for that?!
“Woman” Carries So Much More Meaning Today.
And here’s why we should celebrate all we do as women in the world today:
We do so much.
We give immensely all we have!
We’re not just mothers and/or wives: We are our careers; we are our health; and we
are adventurers, risk takers, teachers, comics, instructors, therapists, chefs, janitors,
drivers, and usually all of those “professions” occur in one day.
Being a woman and a mother in today’s society is immensely pressure-filled. It’s not
good enough to just stay home and raise your children anymore (which, by the way
might be the most difficult job of all). No, now you have to take on a career (or at
least an all-encompassing hobby to make sure you’re never “bored” – ha ha); you
have to keep yourself fit and healthy; you have to be there for your family and
friends; and you have to not lose yourself.
“She believed she could, so she did.” – R.S. Grey
And that should be the most important message we all remember on this
International Women’s Day: Don’t lose yourself.
I did.
During my pregnancy and for the first few years of my son’s life I gave all of me to
everyone else, but myself. Everything I did was for everyone else, and not just my
baby. From my now ex-husband to my family and friends to my career; I gave it all.
And instead of fulfilling my life, it drained me of who I was. It drained me of the
strong, capable woman I am. And when I realized that, my entire life changed, and so
did that of my child and the people around me — and for the better.
I believed I could, and so I did. And I have never been happier.
I am so profoundly happy to be a woman in today’s world. I am equally happy to be
a mother, and a mother to a beautiful boy. I am also happy to have to juggle a career
along with single motherhood. I am happy to have stretch marks and a body that’s
never quite healed since I gave birth. I’m happy to have my own mortgage and bills
to pay. I’m happy to be independent and healthy, not just for myself but for my boy.
On this day of celebration on International Women’s Day, I am ultimately happy to
be a girl, and you should be too because we are incredibly strong and immensely
powerful human beings.
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