Throughout our lives, there are moments that define us, shape up. These moments make up who we essentially are. We don't pick these moments. More times than not, these moments are things that just happen. I can remember being told once, that everyone "deals with shit" and it is true. I call these moments defining moments.
I wont start with my first defining moment, or even my most important defining moment of my life. But with one that I see as a crucial moment in my development as a person. I have three brothers. I am the only daughter, and for many years (until I was 15) I was the only granddaughter. Now, this might make someone go "oh she must have been so protected!", no....just no. It wasn't like that. I wasn't coddled, I wasn't treated any different. Yeah, I had barbies and my brothers had action figures. That was the extent of how I was treated differently. Usually only noticeable on Christmas morning when I got dollies, babies, necklaces, and they got power wheels.
I thank my mother for this. My grandmother for this. More importantly, I thank my older brothers, and one younger brother for this. In a world filled with women's rights, feminism, and bigotry; in our family, there really wasn't any of that. I learned that I could do anything my brothers could do, my male cousins, and my almost half a dozen uncles. It was a lesson of equality that most little girls don't get to live.
I had a blessed childhood, with many people who loved me. I was everyone's little girl for as long as I could remember. Well, everyone's little girl except my absentee father's. And even that I don't see as a crutch, because.... it really was his fault, his loss, not mine, not ours.
Being raised in an all male family, by a single mother, has probably shaped me more than anything else. Yet, I had no control over this. My brothers didn't either, nor did we ask for it. But again, this just showed me that, being female, was no reason I couldn't do anything. My mother is my hero. I don't know how she did it.
I had expected to write my first "defining moments post" on something else entirely different. So, come back later, for part two. Thank you if you made it through this seemingly useless post!
