As you might have already noticed, I am not your average girl, or what a “normal” girl is supposed to be. I don’t wear dresses, or skirts (whatever the difference is), I don’t curl my hair or dye it, I don’t know what any kind of makeup is called, let alone know how to use it. Instead, I wear baggy clothes, have the same hairstyle everyday (since the 8th grade), and never wear makeup.
Ever since I could remember, I’ve always questioned why girls gravitated towards one sort of thing, while boys gravitated towards another. At age four, I wanted to play with my brother’s toy soldiers, not play dress up with my dolls. At age seven, I wanted to take Tae Kwon Do classes, not ballet. At age nine, I wanted to play baseball and soccer. At age twelve, I wanted to play the bass guitar, which apparently is a “boy instrument” according to the salesman at Guitar Center. At age fifteen, I wanted to play the biggest and loudest drum in Drum Corps, one that no girl had ever played before in a parade. Now at eighteen, I want to join the military.
All my life, up to this point, I’ve had to prove myself to everyone else. That I could do it, whatever it was, just as well, or even better than others could. When everyone told me I couldn’t, I only had a few tell me I could and will do it. Having to constantly compete with other people’s idea of what a “normal” girl, over time, caused me to become tougher and more determined to prove them wrong. Now, whenever someone tells me that I cannot do something, for whatever reason, I make it my mission to do it.
Doing things that were widely perceived to being “boy” activities has shaped me into the person I am today. I always set out to do my best in anything that I do, including school work. I don’t make excuses, but find ways to get things done.
I’m not your “typical girl”, but then again, who is?