The women of my life (I)
For International Women’s day (8th of March), I’m tasked to write about the women that have significantly changed my life. It’s going to sound typical because most people give the same answer but my favourite women in this world are my mum, grandma and my bestest friends Elena and Celia. I am well aware that I’ll never be able to fit all that I have to say about them in two or three meager pages of word document but I’m certainly willing to try to, at least, make something that they’d be proud of. Because they are the reasons I am here, as I am (healthy and complete) today.
Elena and I met, almost three years ago. There’s this slow, crescendo that most friendships have at the beginning, right? We never bothered with that or small talk or careful tiptoeing. No, we’re blunt and we throw the truth in each other’s faces, no matter how brutal, or how long it takes for it to come around. We’re built upon honesty; we can see through façades, to the very depths of our essences. We shared secrets and chatted via skype when we couldn’t meet up face to face. We both live in the same city but the need to talk was too urgent we didn’t want to wait. We’d discuss topics we thought were necessary to change our society for the better and have become emotionally inseparable since then.
There’s a wildness about her that perfectly matches mine. I discovered how much of a party freak I am with her, that I actually love dancing. Whenever we go out, it’s always early to call it a night, neither of us wanting to go home yet.
I’m trying hard to make her acknowledge the outstanding woman she is, the incredible things she is capable of doing. I haven’t stopped admiring her (and cannot), as a whole, the progresses she’s made, her natural beauty, the addictive charisma she wields without noticing, how easily she can make me laugh until I run out of breath. She has taught me to eat without toxic worries, to think of food as a pleasure, to embrace my curves, femininity and sexuality. I was holding myself back until our paths crossed. She freed the person that was trapped beneath insecurities and social pressure. These are lessons I’ll never forget. Our friendship is the sort of thing I’d protect until the end.