That's What V Said

*Opinion*

There I was… 15 and on my period. I took a trip to the ladies room to change my pad. When I came back to my desk the boy who sat next to me, Josh, decided to tamper with my things. He took a brand new pad out of its wrapping and placed it on top on my desk and scribbled on it with blue marker.

I laughed, though I was upset he wasted a perfectly good pad. I also thought he should have used a red marker to get a better effect. Girls know that even though they use blue liquids to demonstrate the absorbency of menstrual pads in commercials during our periods, our period blood is in fact red. What an idiot.

I remember all through my days of school whenever I had my period I was stealth and ninja-like when having to go to the bathroom to change a pad or tampon. I and many other girls would keep pads and tampons safely in our purses when we’d go to the bathroom, God forbid anyone found out what we were going to the bathroom for. Middle school, high school, college.

Why do we have to be so secretive? I never really thought about it much until I asked to borrow a pon from my friend Lo when we were at Harpoon Larry’s (in Virginia Beach) last weekend. I was next to her waiting for her to hand it over, like one would hand over a pen or anything else. She said she wanted to kind of sneak it to me and thought I’d get closer. “I don’t care” I said, and walked to the bathroom with the tampon in hand, not purse.

I found myself at a house party last Saturday at a boy’s house and when I walked in the bathroom to change my pon I noticed there wasn’t a trash can. “Dammit.” I asked another girl at the party who was also on her period (I knew because I heard her say something about it and I informed her I had about 5 Tampax Pearls in my purse and that she was welcome to them if she needed one) where she put hers. She said she flushed it. I didn’t want to risk overflowing the only toilet at the party with a used pon.

Wrapped in several sheets of toilet paper, I walked into the kitchen and dumped the sucker in the trash can. Gross? As a person who passes out at the sight of blood, I can understand why periods could be so taboo. But come on, it happens once a month to every woman and it’s natural.

Every time I had to change my pon that night I made sure to tell my guy friend Brandon, who would reply with EEEEWWWWWWWWW!

My friend Lo and Bry discussed it at the beach, saying we don’t understand why people still think it’s so gross. Let’s be a little more mature about it. If it wasn’t for menstruation, there wouldn’t be any babies. Within that same mind set, as we made way to swim in the ocean I asked them to be on the lookout, in case they see my pon string flowing in the breeze. It happens.