 Canva.com "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow." #BreakTheBias The 2022 theme and official hashtag of IWD. I can celebrate this! I think the most shocking thing about bias and women’s equality is when women don’t support each other. When women don’t raise one another up and celebrate their counterpart’s successes. When women flat out play dirty. I have often wondered how much energy it takes to cause harm and expel negativity compared with the amount of energy it takes to do good and cheer others on. I know, personally, I FEEL GOOD when I help someone else. But I have also spent my fair share of ‘being human’ and lamenting over broken relationships, lost business clients, and missed opportunities. I've lost more sleep than I care to admit and spent hours worrying and wondering about choices I made - and not just recently, I'm talking years ago. Rethinking conversations, redoing situations over in my head, regretting not going for that position or not saying what I really felt - both out of fear. I risk losing you here dear reader, but dare I say most - if not all the above - can be attributed to "being a woman?" As females we are programmed to overthink. To worry. To nurture. To try harder than necessary and to be more broken when something isn't right. To just care too much. I won't apologize for these comments; mostly because women spend way too much time saying, "I'm sorry", and because it's truly how I feel. And it's my blog. :) As a mother of a son and a daughter, they’ll both tell you I care about the other one more. They’ll each say I do more for the other. They’ll fight tooth and nail to be the most-neglected, least-cared-for child. I’m not kidding. They are as different as they come, my kids, however they both get just about as much as A. they will take, and B. I can give. Raising a son who respects women and cares about others isn’t a one-and-done, simple task. It’s ongoing into adulthood. It’s reminding them of their roots and what it means to be a GOOD person. Raising a strong, independent daughter isn’t easy. Throw in brains and strong opinions and… well, game over. We strive for our children, especially our daughters, to reach independence. Then once they do, where does that leave us? What about the woman, or women, who helped that little girl become the woman she is today?  Canva.com I think on days like today, that focus on women's achievements, we need to recognize that sometimes our job as women is not to live in constant worry about those we feel responsible for, but to celebrate how far they've come.
I also feel that we need to give ourselves a break. A break from comparing ourselves to others, a break from worrying about what others will think of us, a break from trying to do all the things, all the time. So, now I ask... can you do me a favor? You read this far, so something must’ve stuck… or you were just curious if I was going to apologize. Still not gonna happen, friends. The favor, should you choose to participate, is one of two asks… or both!
In the words of the great Maya Angelou, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Make someone feel good today. xo ~ Kel
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AuthorsKelli Komondor & Archives
August 2023
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