It’s morning and it’s International Women’s Day. It’s hands down one of the days of the year where I am most grateful. Where I give all my beloved mothers across the generations my complete love and blessings and whisper my deepest “thank you”..
Thank you for making my conditions so great that I am almost seen as an equal to and by a lot of men.
Here’s a bunch of my gratitude that I want to pass out to the world on International Women’s Day:
Grandma, thank you for the 40 years at the rubber factory in downtown Helsingør. You worked SO HARD just to make ends meet. And yes, you did…because I’m here.
Great-grandma, thank you for surviving World War 2. I know it came close. I’m so incredibly proud of you and what you did for me, and for all those people that needed to get to Sweden under the war. Everything else doesn’t matter. You and great-grandpa saved lives. You gave hope to those who were without hope and risked everything for a greater cause and you’ve taught me that your life doesn’t really matter if you don’t fight if you don’t change anything. And if you don’t dream and just want to maintain the status quo.
Great-great-grandma, thank you for being a spiritist and experimenting every day. I still think the 1930s must have been a fine time to be alive and I was lucky enough to have my grandmother telling me how you dealt with spirits in your house. I think it’s weird but still awesome.
Mom, thank you for being a telegraphist and sailing the seven seas before you had me. The best stories from my childhood were made from the east and I wouldn’t have been without them. I know you almost lost me and I wouldn’t have been if the captain indeed had sold you for a bunch of camels to that Arabian rich man, but mom, I’m so glad he didn’t. I’m happy you went home, found Dad, and created, well… me.
To the other grandma who is 78 and still rocks both a computer and an iPad and who has taken care of a business and 3 kids throughout her life: I love you, and I think it’s fantastic that you keep fighting the technology, keep learning and having it make sense to you. I’m proud to pick up the phone every day and answer where you need to put the USB mouse on the new computer.
To all my mothers, Thank you All!
Thank you ALL for taking care of me as a child. For fighting. Creating and not giving up. Saving and making a living. For making me an equal – in this part of the world at least.
A lot of places in the world aren’t the same as here. I thank you all for helping me get over the violent abuses I suffered as a teenager, made by teenage boys – simply because I wasn’t strong enough to know what’s going on, and those boys probably didn’t know how bad you can fuck up a teenage girl by stepping over her boundaries.
When everything comes to everything: You’ve shaped me. You’re my mothers. You’ve taught me so much – and I will pass it on to my own daughter.
And to darling P, my precious little girl. No worries, mommy will make sure that everything is cool with being a girl in this particular part of the world when you’re a teenager. I will load you with self-esteem, respect for yourself, and power. I am passing it all to you.
Women deserve an education too
It may sound weird ranting it out in this same article, but I got to plug it in somehow. I want to say that there are so many places in the world where women are still being abused violently.
Even here, though not as much as the other places. And I am not talking about every man. I’m not talking about the good men. I’m talking about men (and women!) who think it’s ok to abuse others. It’s not.
If you’ll do one thing today to fight: I think you should give some money to women’s education. Maybe even to the “More than me girls academy” It’s one of my favorite projects. Why? Because it educates women and it makes them believe in themselves. It makes them dream and create and make the world a better place.