It seems to be the "year of the woman" for me and for the women in my life whom I have close relationships. I speak for myself, though, when I say this journey is showing me that almost everything I thought a woman was is absolutely not what a woman truly is.
First and foremost, I am a human being. I possess feelings and emotions, NOT because I am a woman but because I am human. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in womanhood is that what makes me human isn't only to be reserved for romantic relationships. I was under the impression that I was only to be vulnerable for the man with whom I'm involved, that I was to reserve any love and invested emotion I possessed for "my man" only. I thought that, as a woman, my identity wasn't whole until I was able to say, "I have a man who loves me and who wants to spend the rest of his life with me." But that couldn't be any less true.
As a woman, I'm realizing that my identity is found most within the platonic relationships I have, especially within my relationships with other women. Only recently am I discovering this; my friends and family can tell you, up until recently I always maintained a level of emotional detachment. I didn't express my feelings for them, sadly, because I didn't allow myself to have them. I didn't know it was okay to have them. Now that I am exploring and developing that part of myself, I can say I've received no greater unconditional love, encouragement, and motivation from human beings.
As a woman, I love my friends and my family. I am allowed to feel AND express love, happiness, sadness, excitement, frustration, etc. towards them because I am attached to those close to me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And that's okay.
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