Please Sir, I'm a Lady

I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when...I don't really know what kind of girl I am...

I've been thinking about what it means to be a girl, a woman, a lady a lot these days. I was never the low-maintenance, tomboy that my mother had probably hoped for. She could never do hair, and I could see her cringe as I changed from one pretty dress to another, or wore my ruffle butted little panties backwards so I could see the ruffles more easily.

In conversation with a friend, she expressed her concern at a certain boy's potentially chauvinistic views towards women, afraid that his old-fashioned ways come from the idea that boys are better than girls. In my own special brand of naiveté, all I could think of was "How could that be? Everyone knows girls are better. I would never want to be a boy!"

There's always more to every story, obviously, than what's right out there in the table of contents, but here's a veritable table of contents about what kind of girl I am:

• I'm the kind of girl who wakes up at 6:30 A.M. to talk to her stuffed animals about their feelings.

• I'm the kind of girl who will help you tear wet carpet out of your flooded basement.

• I'm the kind of girl who rides her bike in a skirt.

• I'm the kind of girl who understands the importance of matching glasses and a tasteful thank you note.

• I'm the kind of girl who has read the complete works of Shakespeare and also PostSecret.

• I'm the kind of girl you'd least expect.

• I'm the kind of girl who appreciates a healthy, mature debate.
  

• I'm the kind of girl who legitimately wonders why ladies shun the full slip nowadays.

• I'm the kind of girl who can cook anything you could dream up. Even poached eggs.

• I'm the kind of girl who refuses to accept less than the best (though I've been guilty of doing otherwise at various points in my life).

• I'm the kind of girl who just signed up for a 2.5k open water swim. It's next week.

• I'm the kind of girl who wants to figure out exactly what she wants, figure out how to get it, and then do that.

• I'm the kind of girl who appreciates a man's man.

• I'm the kind of girl who loves her family and friends more than they'll ever know.

• I'm the kind of girl who is taking back all the things that seemed like they were lost.

• I'm the kind of girl who wants to live in a treehouse, but also really wants to have a beautiful home and a beautiful family.

• I'm the kind of girl who reads 1950's etiquette books.

• I'm the kind of girl who can take apart a futon and pack your U-Haul like it's a game of Tetris. I will do this wearing pearls and a smile.

• I'm the kind of girl who can appreciate what kind of girl all the other ladies are.

What kind of girl are you?