Ever notice how as you grow up, the girls you know transform into these incredibly strong and opinionated young women? It's the case for me. My childhood friend, Ebony, and I grew from being each other's better half to being strong women looking forward to the world ahead of us. But as love has entered both of our lives, I've seen how love compromises the independence we've manifested. It's not just the both of us, it's all of my childhood girlfriends. We all soften ourselves so that these men don't feel intimidated by our strength. Which begs the question, why? Why do we compromise our strength for these people who are supposed to love us as we are. I spent five years being so passive and submissive that I lost myself. I've learned from that girl I was and I taught her how to stand on her own two feet again. I see these women who I knew as girls compromising their strength and independence for a man who couldn't possibly understand the strength that lies within her. Like those deep glacial rivers that carve out continents, their strength and power lies deep within them, but is rarely seen.
I suppose I'm lucky. I have someone who was raised by a strong woman, and thusly isn't all that frightened by me when I become assertive. Oddly enough, he seems to like it when I tell someone to shut up because I'm annoyed with them. I know my strength comes from my mother, who is the strongest woman I know and who has bigger balls (figuratively speaking of course) than any man on the planet. I swear to God if you gave my mother 5 minutes with Osama bin Laden, not only would he be apologizing for being an asshole, but he'd be crying about it while doing it. Then again, she has mastered the WASP guilt trip.
Well... that's enough pontification for now.
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