Not So Thankful Thanksgiving

Ariana C.  •   Massachusetts  •  25

I was 12, and it was the first day of Thanksgiving break. I went to the bathroom in the morning and discovered the stain on my underwear. I immediately thought I was sick.

I went to my mom in fear and she just laughed and explained I had gotten my first period. I cried because i didn't want to deal with bleeding every month for the rest of my life.

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I was too shy to ask the teacher if I could go to the bathroom, so up to that point I had always just held it until I got home. I tried doing this on my period until I had stained one too many chairs and decided it was time to suck it up. Every period was anxiety-inducing.

Soccer Delay

Mary B.  •   New Jersey  •  25

It was a few days before 5th grade started. I was supposed to go pick up my team's soccer uniforms with my dad, and when I woke up and went to the bathroom I thought I'd had diarrhea, but then realized it was my period.

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I told my mom and she cried (because she was happy) and showed me how to use a pad. My dad didn't know why I was taking so long to get ready, so he kept shouting up the stairs to hurry up until my mom told him to settle down.

There was only one other girl in my school who also had her period, and I spent most of the first few years after I got it embarrassed about it.

Period Pearls

Leorah M.  •   Colorado  •  25

I was 11 and I woke up to a ton of dried blood on Saturday morning. I waited until my dad left for work and then told my mom. I was pretty freaked out and embarrassed (but also a little excited because I'd been reading a lot of Judy Blume recently and I kind of couldn't wait for it to be my turn) and I made her promise not to tell my dad.

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Of course she secretly did tell him and the next night we had steak for dinner and my dad gave me a pair of little pearl earrings.