when i was a child (maybe 9 years old), my elder sister of 4 years above my age was lying on the bed, i saw my mother placing a bottle filled with hot water on her abdomen. i thought she’s sick, so i asked what’s happening to her… my mother instructed me to go out of the room, but before leaving, my mother said, “you’re sister isn’t sick”, just to relieve myself from worrying. Out of curiosity, standing-by next door, I heard them talking. I didn’t know what it meant, all I knew it’s a big news, so hurried to the street and shouting…”my sister has her first menstruation!!!!”
the eldest brother heard me, and called me back home, i was scared by his angry looks, “what have i done wrong???” so innocently asking myself… upon entering the door, he immediately gave me knock on my head… “why did you do that?”, “i did what???” retort back to him… but i was already crying because the “knock” on the head, really knocked me down.
he said, it’s humiliating what i did, letting other people know about my sister’s first menstrual experience?
So, i still couldn’t connect because i didn’t really understand the experience… until i had my first period… i’ve to keep it a secret until they found out the disposable napkin.. of all people, my eldest brother like an animal tracker discovered the hidden truth… of course, he got mad, because it’s so filthy…i was afraid to throw it in the garbage bin, thinking they would ask and no one was having their period. so i hid it somewhere where i forgot it myself.
however, there’s a culture in bali… the boy or girl passing their puberty period, noticing the adam’s apple appearing on the boy’s neck and the girl with her first period, will have a proper ceremony to officially welcome them on their adulthood phase.
perhaps, my soul knows that it’s not an embarrassment to let people learn about the young adults undergoing physical development but a jubilation since another stage on young’s life is about to begin.
i’m really estranged… my soul has a culture of its own… and living in another wold…
hehehehe! well, that’s life… full of mysteries…
