What does it mean to me be a woman? I am of course a vivid shadow of my mom foremost, whose taught me values of love, respect, hard-work and forgiveness. It’s from her I get my quirky sense of humor and the desire to socialize. My love for cooking, pampering those I love and her love for the arts and movies is her legacy to me. I am also my aunt who always had me try to walk in the shoes of another before making decisions.
My fabulous friends – my lovely long lost, forever in touch, party hardy, can’t live without friends – who taught me the how to believe in myself, being there with a comforting silence whenever I needed it. They taught me to laugh at the stupidest things, carry my style with confidence and have good, solid fun without any dangerous consequences. They taught me that having faith will bring things around eventually. That taking off for a few hours for myself is essential for my well being. They teach me every day how to better my life as I know it.
My catty frenemies – without whom I would never have learned about the existence of manipulation, backstabbing and the very tricky arts of fighting fair, indifference or standing for myself with dignity.
The list goes on, but the bottom line is this. We women, as a whole are a pretty judgmental, random lot trying to fulfill a lot of roles in any given 24 hours. During each minute we simultaneously try to find the balance between being our fabulous selves and finding sanity in all the chaos surrounding us.
With all the responsibilities we are faced with, who we are is defined eventually by the experiences we get when our worlds clash with the worlds of other women. It doesn’t even have to be women we know. Many a times, it’s a ” I have a friend who … ” and then an anecdote gives us a tidbit which we store away for future use or solve a current problem. We derive relief, strength, encouragement from every story we hear or experience. All the gossiping, bitching and random interactions without which we couldn’t possibly live is the invisible thread that connects us All together, for all those words that we utter are all in the end information that is passed on from one experience to another.
So what does it mean to me to be a woman ? It means that I am every woman I meet or hear of. A part of her story, however miniscule intertwines with mine as I live my life trying to be the best mother, friend, wife, sister and person I can be.
As for women’s day celebrations, it’s Every time we are on the phone or hanging with our gal pals. Without those long sessions of venting, discussing, laughing God knows we would probably just explode with pent up gossip. Hehehe … Cheers to all the perks of being a woman. The Dressing up, The High Drama and The Diamonds !!
Good one Aditi. I am thankful to God for making me a woman and wish that i come back as one in my next life as well. Cheers to us!