This started as a journaling exercise and was never meant to see the light of day, but I feel compelled to share it.
On Thursday I am traveling to Denver for my best friend’s baby shower. She is due at the end of September with a baby girl.
For many of us, what it means to be a girl in this world has been top of mind as of late. Here in the U.S., we are currently balancing on a tightrope strung between two mountaintops, strategically tip-toeing our way to safety. One wrong move, and we run the risk of slipping and fall into the rocky abyss below.
Only, the rocky abyss is a time machine that has the power to send us back to the 1950s. And not in a fun, adventure of a lifetime, ‘Back to the Future’ kind of way. Do not mistake the rocky abyss for a plutonium powered DeLorean. There is no Doc and we are not Marty McFly.
If we do not do everything in our power to avoid it, the time machine that awaits us threatens to deliver us to a world where women and girls are second class citizens. Where we no longer have bodily autonomy. Where we are trapped in abusive marriages. Where we are not trusted to make the decisions that are best for us and our circumstances.
This is not a world I want my best friend’s baby girl — or anyone else’s baby girls and boys — to grow up in.
I hope she is able to grow up in a good world.
A kind world.
A world in which the U.S. elects a our first woman president (a woman of color, no less!) shortly after her birth.
A world in which she feels safe enough to be herself. Whoever that self is.
A world in which she is afforded the same opportunities as the little boys in her class.
A world where she is valued for her intelligence and work ethic — two traits she will no doubt inherit from both of her parents.
A world that trusts her to choose what is right for herself, to have full control over her body and being.
A world where she can do anything she wants to do and be anything she wants to be.
A world that allows her to access reproductive healthcare if and when she needs it.
A world that believes her future can contain more than motherhood if she wants it to.
A world in which she is not limited by her gender identity.
A world where there are no glass ceilings or invisible barriers standing in her way, simply because she is a girl.
A world where she is able to live life by her own rules. Where she is able to be whatever sort of person she wants to be.
A world in which she is free to just be.
I cannot predict the future, I do not know what kind of world November will bring.
However, despite the ominous nature of this post, I actually feel something like hope for the first time in a while. For the first time in a long time, it feels like the type of world I am envisioning is not just a pipe dream, but a real possibility.
And regardless of how far out of a reach it may be, we owe it to my best friend’s baby girl and all the other little girls, to fight like hell to build the world they deserve.