With the current climate of our country, I’ve recently found myself bogged down by all the negativities of womanhood, eventually coming to resent one of the key parts of my identity that I’d cherished for so long. And, although it’s quite trivial and slightly embarrassing to admit, a silly TikTok trend has helped me fall back in love with my divine femininity. It’s gone a little something like this:
“What, what’s wrong?
Oh, how I love being a woman!”
Oh how I love the way that it’s unspoken yet mutually understood how every pair of shoes, every dress and every pair of earrings is communal.
How “quick bites to eat” turn into three hour long therapy sessions until the dining hall closes on us.
I love putting on makeup and heels and a tight little dress to go out dancing with my friends.
Oh how I love to fill every available inch of my room with plants and twinkling lights, transforming my space into my own personal greenhouse.
I love being a woman because I will say I need to buy new shoes for an event, but before I can even finish that sentence, a friend will have already dropped hers off at my door for me to borrow.
I love matching my lacey bra to my underwear, even when no one but myself will see them.
Oh how I love my hour-long phone calls with my mom, debriefing every single detail of the week because now that I’ve grown up I don’t get to see her every day.
I love how I can buy myself flowers and put them in the little prosecco bottle I’ve been saving on my desk.
And even more so, I love how I can send a picture of that little prosecco bottle to my best friend, knowing she will immediately understand my aesthetic vision without any context.
I love being a woman and wearing perfume and shimmery body glitter and lotion and things that smell nice because they make me feel beautiful.
I love freshly done nails with mismatching gold rings on every other finger.
Oh how I love wearing matching athletic sets to the gym, just because it makes working out more fun.
I love cowboy boots worn with summer dresses and golden sunkissed skin.
How I love putting things in impractically small jars, simply because I find them cute.
I love being a woman who puts on a tiny bikini and drenches herself in the sun, followed by spontaneous sunset swims that make me feel like I’ve never been more alive.
Above all, I love the fiercely loyal, supportive, beautiful and tenacious women I am so privileged to call my friends.
Oh, how I love being a woman.