DEP LIFE
Finding My Womanhood
A woman of colour, choice, and consequence
My twenty-fifth birthday is around the corner, and my mind has been host to a tea party of emotions.
Am I enough? Have I achieved a leap in my career? Do I know myself well, Am I a good person? Are my life choices benefitting me?
I never understood why, but as I edged into my twenties, I had this gnawing feeling that I had to have had everything figured out by twenty-five.
It is a lot of pressure to be under. I was sinking, and drowning, and I had to constantly remind myself that it would all be okay.
Womanhood is hard. You’re faced with a lot of challenges that make you second-guess yourself. There’s a lot to look after apart from yourself. Living in a joint family, and growing up in a family-centric culture, women are taught to put themselves last. Women are taught to not be bold, sharp, savvy, and go-getters. Women are taught to let things go and be mute, rather than speak up.
In an Indian household, finding your womanhood has a lot to do with breaking patterns of the past before you can start to learn who you are.
With a countdown to my birthday, it’s started to dawn on me that womanhood isn’t a place to reach. It isn’t something you’ll wake…
