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YOUGIRLS ARE ENOUGH. ROCK! NICOLEI HEROUX I PHOTOS BY NSPPANZARINO, STUDIO BY TRACYBY SIMONE PHOTOSWILLIAMS BY SAL PORTERFIELD, MIKE OTHERS
Girls rock! They also play in bands, jump out of planes, drive sports cars and motorcycles and just about anything else they set their minds to. That is, if they give themselves permission to pursue their desires and do not listen to those who would be negative and try to derail them. The most important thing is for women to know that if they believe it, they can achieve it. Too often, some of us fail to believe in ourselves enough to give ourselves permission to succeed. How many of us know women who are completely skilled in an area but lack the confidence to follow through on their desires? Even people with good intentions can fall short of their dreams because they just do not see themselves in the proper light. Some of us are raised to be demure and to not be too bold or harsh as we move through life. Afterall, a lady should be soft and not too assertive in the eyes of others, right? Well, we can do what we want to do and still be feminine. To be successful does not necessarily mean to shy away from non-traditional pursuits.It does not have to mean that we must be quiet or even pretend that we are something that we are not. Many women want to step out there and try something but are afraid of 88
ROCHESTER WOMAN ONLINE : MARCH EDITION 2022
how they will be viewed. Maybe their family members or teachers, bosses, neighbors or someone else would frown upon them. Well, the truth is that what other people think of us is not really our business. Women (and all people for that matter) need to step out there and claim what is theirs for the taking. The only true mistake one can make is to not at least try. We should not have regrets when we get to the end of our journey.
It is easy to be distracted by work, relatives, taking care of our homes or other responsibilities. However, if we do these things at the expense of our own desires, we miss opportunities. Sure, we will have our ‘required’ tasks completed, but our souls will not have been fed. We need to make the time to pursue something that we always wanted to. If we happen to be doing it already, then we need to step it up a notch. We spend entirely
too much of our energy worrying about pleasing others. What happens if we do not include ourselves on the list of people who need us? We will never truly be at peace. There is something that will always gnaw away internally because even though we may have the job that pays the bills and contributes to the home, family, etc. we have still not taken care of that inner need. So then, what do we have really? We have a lot of time spent advancing everyone else’s agenda and ignoring ourselves. This is not healthy, and it is counterproductive. How much happier we would all be if we found a way to take care of the things on our ‘list’ AND did some of what we wanted? Often, many of us find ourselves really wanting to be or do something that may not actually allow us to support ourselves. That still should not stop us. No matter what, we should always be working towards our goals. Maybe we are not able to pay our bills with creative pursuits. If that is the case, then maybe we need to find a way to do our desired thing on the side. Maybe it will just take us a bit longer than we had hoped to be able to support ourselves with it. Maybe we never will make money at the thing that we love. It is still ok to follow that inner voice and go after the goals that we want or to step