The Little Wonder Woman

A story about Wonder Woman, cowboys boots, & throwing punches

Today is International Women's Day.

I used to get up early on Saturday mornings, dress up in my mom’s cowboy boots, and run around our house in my underwear. I was pretending to be Wonder Woman, powerful, courage, and invincible. With I practiced throwing air punches and fly kicks. My mother, woken up by my unbridled energy, would yell at me to stop jumping off the couch. I wouldn’t listen.

I was confident. I saw limitless possibilities.

I often wonder where that fearless little girl went. I have an idea. I received and perceived the wrong messages about what was important in life; getting straight A's, having a traditional, secure career, having people like me, and finding a romantic relationship. When none of those things would happen, that confident little girl turned into a woman decided it was because she was no good.

As decades passed, I would fall into an emotional nosedive in my invisible plane. I developed a fixed mind set. If I was too incompetent, or stupid, or undesirable to make those other things happen, how the hell could I succeed at something new? At the same time, I feared being on my deathbed, alone and regretful for not having lived the life I could have lived. 

"If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes” ― Mark Twain

Decades later, I'm finally pull up the nose of my plane and level out.  I've come to realize the things I value most were things I already had. To love what you do and who you are very different from grades and having a secure job. (Is any job secure?) The art of mastering a craft, of making people laugh, or having incredible friends, being loved, and knowing one’s priorities are far more important.

I used to think heroes were made of steel, had armour, and spent their time saving people. I now know they’re less obvious. True heroes aren’t flashy, they’re subtle. They lead by example and let others shine. 

Now I say no when I need to, say yes when I want to, and live my life regardless of how society thinks I should live it.

To you I say: find time to do what you love. 

Overheard at the 2018 Oscars: "The Wonder Woman film let women feel what every white man has felt when he’s watched a movie."

Thank you, Wonder Woman, for showing a little girl in her 40's that even though we might not be able to save the world, we can still save ourselves, and to never give up her practice of air punches. Mine are coming along nicely.

x Kim

P.S. I've watched the WW movie three times, once in French; I still love it.