Honoring women in our everyday lives
Lauren Johnston and her mother.
March 31, 2023
March is National Women’s History Month. It is a time to celebrate and appreciate the women throughout our lives that help shape us into the people we are today. Everyone has different role models in their life. Mine are my mom and Taylor Swift, but the women we meet each day also have an immeasurable impact on our lives.
From the moment I was born, my mom has always been my number one supporter no matter what my ambitions were. From theater to track to my Duck Dynasty phase, she never tried to change me.
Being a mother is a difficult task as you will shape your kids into the people they become and in my opinion, my mom has done a perfect job. She has allowed us to learn our own set of values and morals without pushing her own onto us.
My mom has given my brothers and I everything we could want or need, allowing us to have a life she always imagined for us. As a kid she was my best friend, though I have grown up and become more distant, I know she will always be by my side no matter what.
Throughout my life I have seen that she is a selfless, compassionate, determined, loving, generous, and hard working individual that made me become the person that I am.
My first CD was “Fearless” by Taylor Swift. It was a gift from my mom and it was the moment she introduced me to one of my biggest role models, and throughout the ages of three to seventeen I have felt a connection to her music.
Swift has a way of writing that makes you feel as if she is talking directly to you and creates a community of people that relate to situations you are experiencing, such as the fear of leaving for college to having a loved one fighting cancer.
Even without Swift’s music I have always found her to be a comforting person in the way that she carries herself and her immense compassion for others in life. In her documentary, “Miss Americana,” she isn’t afraid to speak out on her personal struggles she has dealt with and her journey to get through it.
Taylor Swift has never feared speaking her mind on important subjects that matter to her, such as women’s rights, gun control, and hate against the queer community, even when the people around her disagree.
My mom and Taylor Swift are two obvious answers of role models in my life but every woman I have encountered has helped shape me one way or another.
Maddie Koepnick taught me how becoming a person others can trust and confide in allows them a comfort even if you gain nothing from it. My grandma showed me the benefits that true unconditional love and kindness does to others.
My friends taught me about confidence within ourselves and how honesty is always best. Even if I didn’t mention someone they made an impact in my life in some way, big or small.
National Women’s History Month is a time to honor the women from the past that paved the way for women’s rights as well as the women in our everyday lives that teach us lessons along the way that impact and support us.
In the future, we can only hope we will stop needing a month to acknowledge women’s importance within our history and the injustices they have faced in the past.
Having a month dedicated to women won’t solve the problems with inequality that we still face today unless action is taken as well, regardless of the time of year we should honor everyone in our lives in some way.
