Mallory B. • Texas • 23
When I was 11, my family spent spring break in a log cabin on a beautiful river in Arkansas. My dad and I had booked an early morning boat rental to go fishing and enjoy the views. We made it about an hour down river and decided to stop and fish.
I got my fishing line tangled with my dads about 5 times before I felt a cramp in my stomach and my underwear felt wet. I looked down and saw I had bled through my pants. I FREAKED out and told my dad there was blood. I knew I had gotten my period but had absolutely nothing with me in the middle of this river.
My dad offered to take us back to the cabin, but we had been on a waiting list for this boat rental and I knew if we went back we wouldn’t be able to get another time slot before we left. I told him I didn’t want to leave but I didn’t know what to do about the blood.
Then my dad did something I will never forget. He took off his sock (disclaimer: it was pretty fresh because it was cold out and had only been worn for a couple hours) and handed it to me. He looked away as I positioned it just like a pad on my underwater (on a boat in the middle of a huge river.) We then spent the next couple hours fishing and laughing about what happened. During the whole ordeal, my dad never made me feel gross or ashamed; and as unorthodox as it was, I am super lucky to have gotten that sock as my first pad.
