Excerpt from The Cycle, my column at PSYN Media:
I started my period during gym class – I was 13 and 8 months. I had been lying to my friends for three months that I had already started because I was so embarrassed it had taken me so long to start. I thought something was wrong with me and felt left out of the journey everyone else had begun without trying. So, when I did actually start, I couldn’t tell anyone because the absurdity of my lie would be exposed.
My parents were out of town, I didn’t know my sitter very well, and I don’t know why I didn’t tell my older sister. I knew what it was so I wasn’t scared, I was excited I had finally joined the club but I choose, for some reason, to hide it from everyone and threw the evidence into the bottom of my laundry bin. I failed to consider that it would eventually be discovered and that it would be something I would need to tell someone at some point… namely my mom. Until then, a wad of toilet paper did the trick. Ish.
My mother came back and did laundry and asked me if I had something to share. A needless question because she knew already, but a starter nonetheless. I muttered something when she pressed giving me the answer she was seeking then she walked me to my father and proclaimed, “Bruce, Juliana is a woman now.”
A woman now. Because I had started my period. At 13 and 8 months. What was I at 13 and 7 months I wondered. A girl?