She – Tribute on Woman’s Day | From The Archives

Hey, guys! Following is the short essay I wrote on the occasion of Women’s Day. This was also my entry for a competition where I won first prize and I found this buried in the many other essays I have on my old laptop. If you guys like reading this, let me know, I’ll post more of my articles from the archives of my old laptop! x

Today, on the occasion of Women’s Day, I feel this uncontrollable sense of a different kind of strength. From the many minute segments that the population on this planet is divided in, a certain segment that has always defined me since the minute I took my first breath was my gender, my femininity. This defining characteristic has influenced me in aspects many more than just biological. From my choices, likings and mannerisms to my expressions, feelings and opinions, my being a girl has always made me feel a need to reach out and expand in whichever field that I chose to, farther than anybody can expect, because, as a girl, I know I can. This need has always been strengthened and supported by the history of women in my country, a history that has always compressed and overshadowed women in every shade of life, personal or professional and now that our world has evolved, our history has been left behind, women are taking steps forward to paint a brand new history and I feel proud to be a part of that change.

There is a women I know and idolize, who has stood up and been a part of all the changes that have lead to this new age where women experience liberality in making choices and directing their own lives. I recount the countless instances when She has washed away my insecurities, my fears, and when She has shown me a path to the stars of my dreams. Yes, She. Her name can be anything; She can be your mother, your sister, your friend or even one of your grandmothers or aunts, but to me, She is a woman who represents the strength and capabilities of them all.

From the time in my life when I started understanding the gender related boundaries that our society is so habitually seeped in, I inhabited the image of She is my mind and heart. She is strong, righteous, fair and full of generosity. It is She who has tasted success and sailed through tides that were rougher than any before. She has traced the world, embraced cultures of far and beyond her own and proved herself time and again from the hard work, compassion and time that She has invested in whatever she chose to carry out. Her mind is an album of countless adventures and memories that She experienced because She is not afraid of the unknown or new and that makes me want to make She, the image that I wear when I grow up to be a women, facing the world on my own two feet, not afraid of anything. I would want to be She. Every woman would want to be She and their strength in unity would be unbreakable, her passion and drive uncontrollable, her progress, unstoppable.

Whatever She becomes, a teacher, a doctor, an astronaut or an engineer, She will be the best of herself and there will be no gender related expectation or stereotype that She would lend her thoughts or her dreams to just because She cannot; She can and She will. I look up to She, in fact, I believe every women inhabits an image of She and it is her idea and her image that influences me every time I give into gender confinements that rip women of being She. In the future, in the more evolved world, I know and I believe most truly that every woman would be She and every women would walk hand in hand with progress, with the stars of the farthest skies and She will enrich it with what She can bring to the world – compassion. By then, She would have driven past stereotypes, broken every gender related barrier and been a victor of her fears only to strive out of that societal cage as a symbol of her dreams and accomplishments. Yes, I could not choose a single most influential woman in my life, because there is not one, but there is She who has all the qualities of the many who make me proud of my femininity, of myself and of the many in whose unity, I will thrive when I grow up. She is living in our minds, in my mind, and no time soon will my dream of her fade, in fact, it will condense and form that image of She who will heal the world and bring the stars of her dreams to the Earth.

Until next time,

x