NO MORE PRETENDING

She ran so fast with her jacket around her waist and a pad in her pocket. She kept repeating to herself," oh God please don't let anyone see me, it will be so embarrassing." She ran into the washroom, washed the stain off her school skirt and pretended that nothing even happened.

Her stomach churned, she knew it was coming, her nightmare. She couldn't ask to be excused for this reason, it wasn't a good reason to be excused. So she sat in her huge class in college and pretended that nothing even happened.

Her back was hurting and so was her stomach. The tablet that she took wasn't working. But she couldn't go home for this reason, definitely not. So she continued her work and pretended that nothing even happened.

A snap of her friend's finger and she was brought back to the present. "What were you thinking about?",he asked.

She replied,"oh nothing."

She took a breath, and paused for a second and then said,"no actually, I was thinking about me period and about how I always was ashamed of it. About how I was taught to hide it and to not make it obvious. I was told that my pain due to cramps weren't a big deal. I am 30 years old, I don't need to be embarrassed by them. Nobody need to be embarrassed of them.

That's what I'm thinking about." He didn't reply for a few seconds. They sat in silence until he replied," I'm proud of you. U don't need to be ashamed. Nobody needs to be ashamed. Let's do something, anything to convert the shame into pride." And finally, for the first time in her life, she didn't pretend that nothing even happened. No she did something about it.

~Aarushi Kesari