International Women's Day is Important

Today is International Women’s Day, and today is important. 

A few years ago, when Twitter made me aware that this day existed, I took some time to reflect on all the amazing women in my life, and it has become an annual tradition. Some of them I know personally. Some of them I admire for their work. And some of them I simply adore for the legacies they’ve left behind.

These women are mothers. They are sisters and daughters and grandmothers and granddaughters. They are aunts and nieces and cousins. They are wives and friends and dog-moms. They are bosses and employees and students. They are doctors and nurses and photographers and engineers. They are writers and business owners and counselors and pilots and teachers and designers and activists.

These women are dreamers and doers. They are thinkers and sayers and challengers and questioners. They are creative and analytical and intelligent and adventurous. 

These women have started companies, created masterpieces, raised children, solved problems and fought battles, some that we may never know about.

They work in offices and clinics and schools and newsrooms and coffee shops. 

They challenge me to be better. To do more and sometimes to do less. To think deeper, to love bigger, to remember and at times to choose to forget. To ask the hard questions and speak the difficult truths. To be vulnerable and real and honest and open. 

They encourage me to love and take care of myself. To rest and to run and to play and to dance. To be silly and to chase dreams and to try new things. They show up and they answer the phone. They let me know it’s ok to cry sometimes. It’s ok to fail and to start over and to quit and to take a nap.

We’ve shared cups of coffee and glasses of wine. We’ve gone on road trips and gotten lost and found our way again. We’ve read books and shared ideas and argued and agreed and supported each other. They’ve held my hand through difficult seasons and jumped up and down and flailed their arms during the exciting times. They are the ones who talked me out of terrible ideas and gave me the courage to pursue good ones. 

Most importantly, these women have inspired me to be brave. To say words that need to be said and do things that need to be done. To listen to the voice inside of me that tells me what’s right and to fearlessly chase after it.

I am thankful for these women. The ones who do the things. It gives me hope for all the little girls out there with dreams and fears and imaginations and ambitions. They’re going to be ok. Let’s be women they can look up to. Let’s teach them to be strong and smart and silly and brave. Because the world needs them. It needs their ideas and their questions and their courage.

And it needs yours too.