Breaking the Rules

I wrote this poem when I was a senior in high school. Like so many other young ladies of the same age I was suffering teenage angst. I was attending an all girl boarding school in Middleburg, Virginia when I wrote this. I had a plan to attend university the following year. I was doing all of the things that I was told I was supposed to do. I followed all of the rules.

As I got older I kept trying to follow the rules. I graduated from college. I got married. I had a child. I worked at a bank in a conservative career. But… There was a part of me that wanted to step outside of what was expected of me. I wanted to do something different and exciting. I eventually became a flight attendant. I got divorced. I moved out of state and eventually out of the country. I started breaking the rules that I was told I should follow to be a good woman in this world.

It took awhile to find the best version of myself, and to realize that the rules were not written for me, but to control me. Not only me but all women. We are collectively fierce as females on this planet. Thus the rules. I exist fully now. I dont feel lost anymore. I feel seen. I feel heard. I have scars and wounds and some gray hairs. I have had the opportunity to live a life that I would never exchange. I broke the rules.