It was the summer of 1992. I had just passed the fourth grade. I was as normal and healthy as a kid could be, outside playing with my friends most of the time, practicing gymnastics every day, riding my bike and having sleepovers.

They say the day of your first period is the day you turn into a woman. Being as though I wasn't even a teenager yet, I had no idea what a "period" was. A friend had told me about how sometimes females bleed from "down there", but I thought it was nonsense and didn't believe her. 

On July 3rd of that summer, I had my eleventh birthday. It was a beautiful summer day, bright and sunny. Neighbors were barbecuing outdoors, kids were playing kickball, and it seemed an exciting day. It was all the more exciting for me, because I knew I would very soon be making a birthday wish, blowing out candles, eating cake and ice cream, and of course, opening presents.

I went with my mom to the grocery store to pick up some food items for the birthday meal she was preparing. I told her I'd be right back and headed for the rest room. I went inside and resumed my normal bathroom business. When I sat down, I noticed a red stain on my underwear. It sent a wave of panic through me, as though to say, "This is the scary thing that happens to females your friend was talking about!"

I rushed back to my mother. I told her I had to go home because I was having bathroom problems. We hurried back to the car. After getting inside, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I started crying and panicking, saying to my mother that I think I had gotten "that period thing." Being 11 years old for less than one day did not exactly qualify me as being old enough to know what a period was...they never taught us anything much about it in the fourth grade. 

My mom took me up to my room, and got out a box. It had a little pamphlet inside, and samples of tampons and pads. She read the pamphlet out loud to me, and it

said things like, "Today you are a woman". Naturally being only 10 the day before, I freaked out. I thought this meant that I could never practice gymnastics again, that my days of being a kid were over, and that I'd basically have to grow up to be an adult now. I didn't want anyone to know. 

Later on that week, I had gone reluctantly to the restroom to change my pad while a friend was waiting for me outside the room. Not quite familiar with the routine yet, I had put the old one in the trash, and being that the trash was full to the brim, I stomped it down with my foot. After finishing and washing my hands, I went outside again with her. We were walking down the sidewalk to neighbor's barbecue, and suddenly, my friend grabbed my arm, and pointed frantically to my shoe. There was a half-unwrapped pad stuck the bottom of it in plain view! I panicked,

went upstairs and buried it in the trash. She witnessed the whole thing and laughed. "It's not funny!" I told her. "How would you like it if you were the only one on the block who has a period?" I was almost crying. She laughed again. "I was the only person on the block with it, but not anymore!" she said.  Suddenly, after hearing that, I calmed down, and began to laugh with her. I wasn't the only one after all.

Needless to say, all of my assumptions about having my period were wrong, and fortunately so. I learned that I could play sports just as easily on my period than

not, I could just as easily go outside and play with my friends, and that I was still the same healthy kid. Eventually I got used to it. I realized a few years

later that every woman gets their period eventually, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of. I did however learn not to stomp down the trash with my foot after changing feminine protection products.

----Amanda