Unlimited. My whole life I have been told that I can do anything.
I want I was told that my range is infinite and that I can go as far as I wish and then some. And, for most of my life, I believed it. I believed that a girl could become just as successful as a man, I believed that my gender, my age, and my appearance would never limit me. Then, I grew up.
In fourth grade, I learned the presidents. We recited them over and over and I realized that all of the names belonged to men. Being curious, I asked my teacher why there were no female presidents and he laughed. HE LAUGHED and shook his head, telling me that women can’t lead a country because they don’t know how to control their emotions and too many wars would break out. That was the first limit. My range was no longer infinite, but at least I could still do a lot of things.
Four years later, a presidential election was held and a woman ran. I thought to myself that maybe my teacher was wrong; that maybe women could become president if only they learned to control their emotions. I entered high school and decided to do just that, control my emotions. This time, I limited my own range.
Sophomore year, as I prepared to get my permit, I listened to my dad in the car. Every time someone would drive like an idiot, my father would shake his head and say “must be a girl." It was a joke, I knew that and I know that now, but it still bugged me. The fact that my dad thought a guy could never make a mistake; how the guys were always perfect.
Junior year, I learned about the concept of the “glass ceiling."
It's the invisible wall that women remain below while men continue to get higher and higher. I learned that most women never get the chance to hold management positions. In my sociology class, my teacher told me of a time when she applied for a job after graduating college. She was just as qualified, if not more qualified, than the other candidate. However, she did not get the position. It turned out that the other person who had applied was a male and got the job due to his gender. I, once more, learned that my range was not unlimited; that there were a few things I would not be able to do because I was a girl.
Later that year, as my sociology class continued, we learned more about the “glass ceiling” as well as a concept that was very new to me: Apparently, girls who attend co-ed schools tend to not take AP courses, especially not in math, because they don’t want to appear “too smart.” My teacher told us how, in co-ed schools, girls will sometimes act dumb or not raise their hands out of fear of being labeled as too smart. As that year continued, more lessons were taught to me about what the range of fairness was when it came to being a girl.
A story began to circle social media, a young girl had been sent home from school because she had been wearing an outfit in which her shoulders were not covered. Her shoulders had apparently been a distraction to the boys in the school, and because it is apparently way more important for boys to be educated than girls to be comfortable, the girl lost her ability to learn for a whole day. The drama continued.
Schools repeatedly sent girls home due to minor dress code issues that would cause the boys to have trouble focusing.
There was even a case in which a boy wore boxers to school and did not get in trouble but a girl was sent home because her bra strap was showing. These stories showed me that my appearance would limit me and that, because I was born a girl, I would forever have to make sure that my outfit did not mess with the boys around me. These stories showed that, for a girl, the range would never be infinite if there was a boy in the picture.
Then came senior year, the time when you should be focused on college and friends. But my mine was spent differently. My senior year was when I realized just how unfair it is to be a girl in this society. I was reminded constantly that if I was a boy, my life would be so much easier. My father was the first to tell me this, he was then backed up by my mother and sadly, I agree.
Senior year was filled with drama. On nights that I returned home from school in an emotional state, my dad would comfort me and jokingly state that he was sorry I was born a girl; that there would not be all this petty drama if I were a boy. He would sometimes laugh after saying this, but it was actually not a joke. Most girls do go through harder times than guys because of that whole emotions thing and the fact that girls will talk behind backs while boys will confront and just “fight it out”.
As senior year continued, the range that I had once thought was unlimited seemed to grow shorter and shorter.
I learned that, because I am a girl, I will most likely struggle to find a job in a management position and I would stand a small chance of ever becoming president. Because I was not a perfectly skinny, tall girl, I could never become famous.
Because I had been born a girl, I would have to deal with more drama than a guy. Because I was born a girl, some would think it be best for me to be a fool, because “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” Because I was born a girl, my range does not extend as far as that of a boy.
But even so, I will continue to try.
I will work twice as hard as the boys who study alongside me in college. I will attempt to reveal to all those who doubt me that girls can do anything that guys can and that a woman can become president because women can control their emotions and can do anything men can do. I will show my dad that it is not always the girl that makes the mistake. I will try to shatter as many “glass ceilings” as I can. I will attempt to prove to myself that my range is just as infinite as I thought it was before I grew up.
