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Woman Talk

I'm really enjoying these prompts from the #LoveBlog challenge. They are perfect since I'm temporarily running the blog alone due to deployment. They are making me think of new and interesting topics for you. Today's topic was "boundaries" and it took me a little while but the post finally hit me during a conversation with some online friends. Get ready for a little insight on "woman talk" and why we should be engaging in it more often. Do you remember the game Girl Talk? It was a game that prompted girls to engage in conversation and fun while playing a game. There were truth and dare cards full of conversation and tasks. If you chose not to complete one, you ended up with a zit (red sticker) on your face and no adolescent wants those! I can remember endless hours of conversation with friends due to this game.

Why am I bringing up a game from my childhood? To me, it's the perfect example of what we need to be doing now as adults - engaging in real, truthful conversations. We need to be talking about the good and the bad. And we need to be talking about all topics like we did as kids. Think about it - things were a lot less "off limits" as a kid engaging in conversation because we were still learning social norms and what was expected of us.

I understand the reasons for social norms and I definitely know how to follow them. However, I feel that among friends and family, these norms can be dropped a little to allow for more "real" talk. My mom was always very open with my sister and me growing up and even to this day, we know that no topic is off limits. (And when I say no topic, I really mean no topic. There have been some conversations between us that you wouldn't believe.)

Why do we put up barriers and avoid topics with our friends? I always find it refreshing when I find friends that I can have "woman talk" with. You know the kind of conversations I'm talking about - the nitty gritty of being a woman in today's world and what our bodies go through in the process. It lets me know that I'm not alone in this world.

I first discovered the need for woman talk when I was a teenager. My body was going through the normal changes that every girl's body goes through. Some of these were the ones shared in textbooks and sex ed classrooms. Others were side effects that people forget to mention. I didn't feel like anything was wrong with me but at the same time, I wondered if certain things were "normal." These things randomly came up in a conversation with my mom and I discovered that everything I was going through was 100 percent normal. (To this day, I don't remember what these "certain things" were, but I do remember the relief of talking about it with someone.)

Fast forward to adulthood and you add way more scenarios than just puberty. As women, there's so many things that we can learn from each other. Instead, we search the internet and wonder in silence about things. Wouldn't it make more sense to simply ask a friend?

If you already have friends that you can be open with, you're lucky. If you don't, I want to encourage you to start some woman talk the next time you're together. You might be amazed at what comes from breaking the ice.

We really shouldn't be afraid to open up to each other. After all, there's a good chance that we're all dealing with some of the same things but we don't realize it because we don't talk about it.

Do you talk openly with your friends? Why or why not?