"Sometimes your Worst Enemy is yourself"

Throughout the women in literature unit, there was a re-occurring theme of knowing oneself. All of the women in this literature unit had to make choices and decisions that required a lot of contemplating and thinking. All of these characters, such as Edna and Nora had to make decisions that effect the rest of their lives. Often, they hesitated because they thought too much about it. They let their inner thoughts and fears get to the best of them. However, in the end the women chose to do what they thought would be the best for them, regardless of what society believes is right. We all go through this day by day and we fight the power of society and we fight the demons that lie within us. Often, we can give advice to others, but when the same situation occurs to us, we have a hard time taking our own advice. I think that we all need to find a little bit of Nora and Edna within ourselves and stand up to what society is trying to get unto conform to. Seeing girls like Jennifer Aniston and Demi Lavato fight back to society on what women/girls should look, compared to what "society" thinks they should look like. I think more women need topay attention to what is going on in society and teach the hong girls that they are good enough. 

Who Run the World? Girls!

Recently, I was watching tv and a commercial came on...in the background of this commercial, Beyoncè's "Girls Run The World" song was playing. As nerdy as it sounds, I immediately starting thinking about English class and how far our society has come in accepting women. And not even just women, people of all colors, races and sexualities.
Reading A Thousand Splendid Suns was one of those rare occurrences when a book really speaks to you. It put life in perspective for me about how thankful I should be. Girls my age over there can't walk around and leave the house without a man, they get set up for marriage, and the constantly have to wear something to cover their face. Over in America, we're freaking out about who is gonna take who to prom, let alone marry them. We're lucky when we get to leave our houses to go out with our friends and not worry, and we are so lucky to have the freedom of expression. America clearly still has a lot to work on, however we also have to be thankful for how far we have come. I think that Mariam above everyone else, showed us the power of being a girl. She was a strong women who did what she needed to do, and though the outcome was not a positive one, it proved a point. I tried to put myself in Laila and Mariam's shoes, and I like to fool myself into believing that I would be able to be as strong as they are. Those women were the models and heroes that little girls look up to, the ones I wished I looked up to when I was younger and the ones I want my daughter to look up to. Girls like Beyoncé are great, and they sing about powerful women, but there is a huge difference between being a powerful women and singing about them. A Thousand Splendid Suns helped me realize this; and for that I couldn't be more thankful.