Cameron R • Arkansas • 18
I have 3 older brothers. They’ve always been way too overprotective of me and never afraid to tell it how it is. Our parents went on business trips a lot, which left just the kids home about 50% of the time. Since all of my brothers could drive at the time, and our parents left good amounts of money behind, this was never a problem. One night when I was 12, I woke up with awful pains in my lower abdomen and back. I didn’t tell anyone and just took an ibuprofen. The next day, I went to the bathroom and saw all the blood in my underwear. My parents were out of town and it was just me and my 3 older brothers! There was so much blood, I knew I had to tell someone.
The brother I was closest to was 16 at the time. I immediately ran out of the bathroom and into his room and frantically whispered “I just started my period and I have no clue what to do.” I felt bad because he was probably more shocked than I was. He immediately called my other brothers to tell them what happened and headed off to the store. When he came back, he had a box of pads and tampons. He told me how to use them and I felt better immediately. To this day, I’m so impressed that my brothers handled it so well. They gave me space and frequently checked up on me to make sure I didn’t need anything. At the time, I thought it was extremely embarrassing, but looking back, they handled it perfectly and I love them so much.
