Sometimes, I hate being a girl.

Sometimes, I hate being a girl. I know, I know---shocking. outrageous.

When I was a little girl I thought being a woman was probably the best deal ever. I could be a tomboy by day in my ripped up jeans and bare feet; and I could be girly on weekends in pretty dresses and very large bows. Basically, I got the best of both worlds while my brothers had to conform to the much narrower "boy" role. Ha, no dresses for them! (Although I do have a picture of Matt in a prom dress from his high school days, but that's neither here nor there). I wanted to be better than boys at sports but I also wanted them to tell me I was pretty.

Yep, I felt pretty lucky that I got to be a girl. And okay, I still like it most of the time.

But sometimes I hate it. It seems completely unfair that I should have to carry the burden of being the more emotional of the two genders. I'm not saying boys can't be emotional...but hormonally, we're just different. For whatever reason, our hormones are tied intricately together with our emotions. It's like there is a major artery binding them and we can't risk disconnecting them without nicking the artery and bleeding to death.

I have never been a particularly emotional girl. I've even been known to get annoyed at other girls when they are acting on emotions that are irrational. But at the end of the day, even if I battle them, even if I'm slow to show them to others, all those emotions---irrational or not---are there.

So to all the other ladies in my life and out in the world---if you ever have days where you get a sudden wave of emotion that makes you tear up over a commercial, if you ever feel like others might accuse you of being bipolar because you "perked up" from a bad day a little too quickly, if you ever get depressed even when things are going well in your life, if you ever get sappy feelings from a romantic comedy, or even if you ball your eyes out in front of a confused and concerned husband but can't give him a reason why---you are not alone.

I've found some solace lately in reading the honesty of other bloggers who admit to having some of these crazy emotional episodes and it helps me feel a little more normal. I'm not crazy, I'm not weird, I'm just a woman and a strong one at that.