Today is International Women's Day. The one day a year that we lift up and celebrate women while poor, fragile male egos bitch and complain about how life isn't fair. Personally, I think this is a wonderful day. I love having a specific day when I can celebrate all of the wonderful women in my life at the same time. A day when doing so is encouraged! Obviously, we should be uplifting and celebrating women every day, but today gives us a stage upon which to do so.
Strong women have shaped my life. They have directed the flow of how I developed and maturated. As I've grown older I have found that I relate much stronger to women than men, and I am infinitely more comfortable in their company. Moving to Saskatchewan my first friend was a girl in my class, my very first friend in life was the neighbour girl (wrote on extensively here). Of course I have had, and continue to have strong male relationships, but they aren't the same. I'm reluctant to share personal things with them, and it takes far longer for me to open up and trust males than females. Looking at my life right now, of the people I consider to be close/best friends at least 80% are female.
Growing up (and currently) I loved Star Trek. Captain Kirk was my hero. A swashbuckling, intelligent, space adventurer who saved the galaxy and looked good doing it. Then there are characters like Aragorn, Jon Snow, Kvothe, Belgarion, Paul Atreides, Captain America, and countless other fictional heroes that I looked up to and wanted to become. Video games have given me the opportunity to become those people! Yet, no matter what, in games with character customization I play as a female character so that I can relate to the story more. The Mass Effect series provided me with the perfect opportunity to become Captain Kirk, yet out of the countless (literally, I have no idea how many times I have played the series) times I've played, only once has been as a male Shepherd, and I forced myself to do it because NPCs reacted differently and I wanted to experience it for myself. Whenever people would ask me why, I would always just say it was because I enjoyed stories with strong female protagonists. I didn't know how to tell the people asking that it was because I could relate with females better. I still don't really. I don't know if I could have this conversation face to face.
In high school, my male peers would often complain about how they just couldn't understand how women think, or why they would do things a certain way. I never had that problem. I could understand, I could relate. I was on this weird fence where I could understand why the guys were doing things one way and why the girls were doing it another. What confused me was that no one else could see it.
Okay. I have gone way off topic. Kinda. What I want to say is this: Happy International Women's Day! I hope each and every one of you get the wonderful day you all deserve! And that you get those days tomorrow and the days after that. Women should be celebrated and uplifted every single day. But I'm glad that I get today to thank all of you! And to all of the women in my life, each and every one of you is smart, amazing, and beautiful. I love each and every single one of you!
Strong women have shaped my life. They have directed the flow of how I developed and maturated. As I've grown older I have found that I relate much stronger to women than men, and I am infinitely more comfortable in their company. Moving to Saskatchewan my first friend was a girl in my class, my very first friend in life was the neighbour girl (wrote on extensively here). Of course I have had, and continue to have strong male relationships, but they aren't the same. I'm reluctant to share personal things with them, and it takes far longer for me to open up and trust males than females. Looking at my life right now, of the people I consider to be close/best friends at least 80% are female.
Growing up (and currently) I loved Star Trek. Captain Kirk was my hero. A swashbuckling, intelligent, space adventurer who saved the galaxy and looked good doing it. Then there are characters like Aragorn, Jon Snow, Kvothe, Belgarion, Paul Atreides, Captain America, and countless other fictional heroes that I looked up to and wanted to become. Video games have given me the opportunity to become those people! Yet, no matter what, in games with character customization I play as a female character so that I can relate to the story more. The Mass Effect series provided me with the perfect opportunity to become Captain Kirk, yet out of the countless (literally, I have no idea how many times I have played the series) times I've played, only once has been as a male Shepherd, and I forced myself to do it because NPCs reacted differently and I wanted to experience it for myself. Whenever people would ask me why, I would always just say it was because I enjoyed stories with strong female protagonists. I didn't know how to tell the people asking that it was because I could relate with females better. I still don't really. I don't know if I could have this conversation face to face.
In high school, my male peers would often complain about how they just couldn't understand how women think, or why they would do things a certain way. I never had that problem. I could understand, I could relate. I was on this weird fence where I could understand why the guys were doing things one way and why the girls were doing it another. What confused me was that no one else could see it.
Okay. I have gone way off topic. Kinda. What I want to say is this: Happy International Women's Day! I hope each and every one of you get the wonderful day you all deserve! And that you get those days tomorrow and the days after that. Women should be celebrated and uplifted every single day. But I'm glad that I get today to thank all of you! And to all of the women in my life, each and every one of you is smart, amazing, and beautiful. I love each and every single one of you!
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