status update: shedding my uterine lining

 i started my period two days early. normally, i would be devastated and complain to my friends about how my week was ruined, but i’ve taken a step back and confronted these initial negative feelings because i've been trying genuinely love my period. i feel grateful that my body is working and cycling out what doesn’t serve me. i have PCOS, so i have a particularly hard time when i'm on my period, but i’m trying to have a different mindset when it comes to menstruating. i think it’s a beautiful cycle and not that having a period equates to femininity, but for me personally it makes me feel more feminine than i would usually. there’s something beautiful in the way the bodies of people who have periods work, and i wish that they weren’t so demonized. periods should be seen as symbols of renewal and strength, not as something shameful and disgusting as they’re often depicted in western culture. i've asked people in my life who go through the cycle of menstruation to share some things with me and i plan on writing an essay about it and making that the first one i post here!!