What Women Want

When I was younger I used to blog a lot about relationships.  To be honest...I didn't know shit about a relationship.  As a teenager I had this fantasy in my head that everything would work out perfectly.   Boy meets girl.  Boy really likes her.  Ya'll know the rest.  Now that I have a few years at this under my belt I think I can sum up what women want.  A lot of women can't give name to it because they are immature or are so focused on the other meaningless things--money, status, what other people think-- that negate the true desire.  The thing that would fundamentally change the course of a romantic relationship.

Women want to be VALUED.

They want to know that you know that they bring something special to the table.  They want to know that they are different from everyone else.  And while she may know...she NEEDS to hear it from you.  Feeling devalued is an attack on one's self-worth and importance and no matter how confident, independent, and self-sufficient she may be she still wants to know the value she brings to YOU.  Why does she matter? Why her and not anyone else?  If she's fly, she probably already knows that no one else compares but she wants to know that you see this too.  You are not telling her something she does no know, you are just confirming the fact that you both already know to be true.

By design, women are ride-or-die creatures.  We want to stick with you and we are no stranger to challenges or adversity, but its difficult to remain strong and confident through it all, especially in our world of twitter hoes and instagram porn stars who look like Rosa Acosta, work a pole like Maliah, and are trying to bag via direct message.

So validate her.  Make her feel as wanted and as important you think she is.  Even thought she may know it already, it makes all the difference in the world to hear it from you.  Don't get tired of letting her know.
You may feel redundant or repetitive, but don't ever let her forget you see her worth and don't ever let her doubt that you believe she stands out from all the ratchets out there.  It can never to hurt to make it clear to your girl that you appreciate and desire what she is and what she brings. If you can't or if you chose not to, I promise someone else will, gladly.  It does not seem like much, but it truly makes all the difference.

Instagram "Likes"

From now on I'm speaking my truth and owning the outcome.  I stopped writing for awhile because I stopped feeling.  I stopped allowing myself to think about and engage with the raw emotion I used to know and articulate so well.  Well I'm done with that.  I'm done holding my tongue so that I don't offend.   I plan on saying what I want and standing by it.  And I think everyone else should do the same.

It's funny how one "like" on one picture can take right back to my 18 year-old-self on AIM falling right into the same traps.  But that's how I know what I felt was real: the love and the pain.  It's crazy how our emotions can be so powerfully dictated by the actions of others.  An action that was probably meaningless to the other now has me thinking what if.  Asking what if things had gone differently? What if I actually told you what I felt from the beginning?

But I had to go to my old blog.  The one that was driven by the turmoil you caused and reread those posts.  That fiery, raw emotion that dictated my actions and lead to a spiral of poor decisions, self-doubt, and loosing myself.  Then I remember.  Although the memories are fleeting because of all the work I did to permanently remove them from my mind.  Then I get mad.  I want to give you the proverbial middle finger for showing up, out of no where and injecting your poison back into my blood stream, especially knowing what I know now.

My saving grace is that I'm no longer that 18-year-old girl.  I'm grown, 24 to be exact and no longer blinded by all things you.  No longer willing to let the intangible possibility of something lead me down the path of nothing.   So I can smile, laugh, and focus on bigger and better things.

I Was Deep...Where Did This Girl Go?

Shaterra Lee

December 1, 2007

Abyss

In the dark mistakes live and linger.

They thrive, survive, and refuse to pass away.

Creeping up slowly we can’t help but recall

all the choices we would rethink;

the insurmountable changes that would have made all the difference.

It is here that all that was hazy is made vibrant.

Illuminated by the stillness, the dark is, too, vibrant

allowing those thoughts we push away to linger.

No matter how much we fight, nothing brings about difference.

So toil and struggle, but it won’t go away.

Instead, choose ignorance as bliss so you won’t have to rethink,

you won’t feel, you won’t breathe, you won’t recall

The desire is to forget and never recall

the messes we’ve made: their memories rich and vibrant.

You want to move forward but before you must rethink

Live in the pain, lean to discomfort, and allow it to linger.

The longer it stays the stronger you become, so let time waste away,

and the more you live the more regret dies; you will know the difference.

But before they vanish, store the lessons, the memories, the difference

so that later you can always recall

necessary evils.  They will serve as your compass to help weed away

and avoid those things that once caused pain, stole what was vibrant

robbed innocence, plagued your psyche, and in your heart did linger.

Believing they aren’t pertinent is a thought one should rethink.

Now I must rethink

how I have allowed my past to haunt my present and evoke difference

in my future.  How I have refused to learn while allowing mistakes to linger.

My inherent flaws and my weak, malleable heart that forgets no person and not an emotion it doesn’t recall.

The choices that robbed, like a thief stealing what was vibrant,

reduced self-esteem, distanced me from my purpose, and drove focus away.

So here in the dark I waste away.

These haunting decisions I rethink.

Internally striving toward an existence clear and vibrant

A life that illuminates to make a difference,

but I’m in holding wanting to press into my future. The past I still recall.

The inseverable connection between the two is now apart of me, so here I linger.