Ashley E • New York • 28
I can remember it like it happened yesterday. I think it’s mainly because I always thought I would be empowered by entering womanhood, and not leaving school crying waiting anxiously to go home and curl up into the fetal position.
I was 14, it was January 2004 and I was sitting in Algebra 1 during first period. Ironic I got my first period during first period now that I think about it. My outfit was so cute that day too, a pink long sleeve shirt, a skirt (yes, I’m from Buffalo we wear skirts in the winter) and black boots. Throughout the entire math lesson I was experiencing nagging stabbing pain in the lower abdomen.
None of my other friends who had already gotten their periods ever told me they thought they were going to die, so what was happening? It continued all throughout algebra and then it happened. My underwear didn’t stand a chance, I was wearing a skirt, the hormones pumping through my little 14 year old body had all but tipped me over and I found myself sobbing in the nurses office.
I called my mom to bring me clothes and I was such a blubbering mess on the phone my dad thought I had gotten beaten up when he answered the phone. Luckily I was able to go home and swallow my first of many doses of Midol in my life time. And I learned to never wear a skirt when it was that close to that time of the month. Womenhood came in like a wrecking ball for me and it makes the best story of my first period.
