Red

I feel it in the deepest pit of my stomach.

It’s a combination of pain and relief.

The single most dreadful and yet hopeful thing about my body.

No matter how long I’ve hated it, I am still incredibly glad to have it.

It comes with promise of mayhem, pain and one day incredible joy.

For a few days each month, I have to pay attention to my body.

I have to do what she tells me when she tells me.

A lot of people don’t get that.

They don’t understand that every one has a different experience.

They say things like, ‘but Sally can still go jogging when she gets hers or Alex went paint balling while on hers.’

‘Bisi doesn’t have cramps as painful as this’, ‘Ada never gets stained’, ‘You don’t need to leave work in the middle of the day just because…’

Just because I feel like my groin is about to explode from pain!

Just because I have blood gushing nonstop through my lady-parts, for one week straight, every single day and night without pause!

Don’t let me get started on the cramps that come as my uterus tries to squeeze all the extra endometrial lining that signifies how disappointed she is that I didn’t give her spermatozoa to fertilize one of my glorious eggs.

As I was saying, it’s dreadful but it’s also hopeful.

Hopeful because it reminds me that I am a walking miracle.

I mean I have this crazy ability to nurture a tiny human to life in my body!

This gives me hope. Not during my period but some days before or after, when I am not in pain and I can do whatever I want.

What I’m trying to say is, give us a break when we occasionally lose it at ‘that time of the month’. Be glad you’ll never experience it or that yours isn’t as shity and go buy some tampons or ice cream or whatever we need to get through the week.

I’m I right or I’m I right?