Naydeline M • New York • 20
It was the 7th grade, and coincidentally the same year that I was taking my first health class. In our classroom of all girls -- this was back in 2010 -- we discussed everything from body hair to our "growing bodies", boobs, but we hadn't made it to the unit on menstruation on this frightful afternoon, and what I thought would be an ordinary day.
It was after gym class, and I was sweaty and gross. I had just started wearing a training bra and wore whatever deodorant my mom passed down to me. After changing out of my gym clothes and into my school uniform, I had the sudden urge to pee. I headed to the locker room bathroom, and into a small stall with a gap on the door just a bit too wide. When I slid my underwear down, to my surprise I spotted a small red dot. What was this? Had I cut myself on the vagina? But how? I was in a rush to get to class on time, so I did what many new women in my situation have done before: I grabbed some toilet paper and made a makeshift pad to stop the bleeding until I got home.
When I got back to my apartment, I locked myself in the bathroom to inspect the crime scene and told my mom what happened. "Mami, I think I got a cut on my vagina." She looked as confused as I was. She quickly realized what was going on and went in her room to grab me pad, handing it to me through the small gap between the door and the toilet. "You're a woman now", she said laughing.
