Dear Woman, You Can Be Whatever You Want To Be

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Be reckless. Continue playing with fire because you are the match that this world badly needs to be alive. Continue flirting with the passion that burns inside your heart so that your environment will wonder how you keep your optimism inside this insane and chaotic world we live in. Continue searching for the secrets you hide for fear that the world will not accept you for your flaws and weaknesses.

Be insane. Braid your hair with bubble gum, wash it, and change its color to blue. Wear long skirts and long shirts and long earrings. Mix that red lipstick of yours with orange eye shadow and brown eyeliner pencil. Wear those huge brown shoes you hide at your cabinet because someone told you those shoes don’t fit. Continue writing your crush’s name at the back of your hand, at the back of your neck, or on the back of your bedroom door. Doodle on your face and add stars to your drawing; color your face with red and orange and violet pens and post your illustration on your bedroom door and scribble these words: “You are colorful, you are not made up of stars because…You. Are. The. Star.”

Be a risk-taker. Learn that dance you’ve been dying to perform. Join an organization. Be the class president or your college’s president or your university’s president. Say “No” and state your argument. Search how to bake that cake even if you do not know which is the baking soda and which is the flour. Learn how to bike and be happy when you stumble at the end of the road. Woman, be proud of your mistakes because those wounds are your trophy of bravery. Sing wholeheartedly not only inside the bathroom but also inside the library, in the market, inside a moving bus, beside a professor, beside your #1 enemy, on a bridge, inside a coffee shop, and ignore if someone scratches his or her head because of your voice. Listen, your voice is unique and beautiful and no other person in the world has the same voice like you. Some day they will be thankful that they heard you singing and they watched you being carefree amidst the pessimism and inhibitions of this world. Make your hair short; cut it if you want. At the end of the day, you are the lone creator of your happiness.

Be brave. Stand and speak. Do not make someone’s statement about how ‘bossy’ or how ‘boastful’ or how ‘foolish’ you are stop you from being the woman you wanted to be. Do not make them feel that they win and achieve their goal of putting you down, their goal of putting you at the margins or even at the back of the margins and their goal of letting you feel that you are an inferior kind of individual. You are never an inferior one. Stand and speak. Protect the right that our suffragettes won for us. Be involved in political and electoral affairs. Do not be afraid of the differing opinions that you will encounter; instead, be excited because you get the chance to display that you are a woman with intense bravery. Dear woman, being brave is also being beautiful. Slay them with your words. Leave them gasping. Leave them clapping for you.

But, dear woman, do not just be reckless; be insane, be a risk-taker, or be brave. Be everything. Do not be sad that you still haven’t heard the words ‘You are pretty’ because pretty is just a six-letter word and it will never ever ever ever define who you are. You are more than pretty. You are made of blood and fire and ice and storms and thunder and words. That is why some people are afraid to touch you because you are a masterpiece. I repeat, you are a living and breathing masterpiece. Our ancestors offered their lives so that they could create a world where a woman would be accepted, appreciated, and heard.

Yes, you still have many battles to fight in this patriarchal society, but the reality that you could be everything you wanted to be is a blessing you have to embrace. Be everything. Be amazing. Be intelligent. Be cool. Be awesome. Be a fighter. Be a dancer. Be a singer. Be a writer. Or be a dancer and singer and writer at the same time. Be a nurse. Be an athlete. Conquer the world of sports. Be a leader. Conquer the world of politics. Be a scientist. Conquer the world of science, technology, engineering, and math. Be an astronaut. Be an activist. Be a speaker. Be a fighter.

Be everything. Be a woman. Be you.