When I tell my friends I used to show dairy cows they react with what are you a hick? What they didn’t know was I used to wear carharts and boots daily. I would just respond with “Since I started hanging out with you guys I had to start looking good.”

Growing up playing in mud was a daily ritual. As a kid I acted like a guy even though I was a girl. I would love to go fishing and catch frogs with my hands. My dad simply considered me his son instead of daughter, because I did not act like a lady. Every afternoon I would go to the barn and lead my cows around. The reason for leading them was because I had to get them ready for shows. At nine years old my hobby was showing dairy cows and playing sports. In Elemtary School the boys would even consider me one of them. When we had gym I was the only girl who brought sports clothes to change into, the other girls didn’t play or they did in their pink sparkly shirts and jeans skirts. Gym class was my favorite time of the day. My favorite game was football, I would always beg my gym teacher to let us play tackle but he would never let us. Little league games were the best. I was on the A league and the only girl on the team, which I thought I was the best on the team as well. I was the catcher and boys would always say before they saw me that I would suck but when I played and hit the ball over there heads and their jaws dropped.

Middle school came and we combined with another school that happened to be our rivals. This is when I realized I was boy crazy. Being in my school with all the guys I was related to them all and they were like brothers. Having another school come in and have good looking boys was a different atmosphere. This is when I knew I might have to stop wearing the Carharts. New girls dressed nice so I felt like I had competition now and had to look nice. My hair that was usually in a messy bun was now down and straight the Carharts that I wore soon changed to skinny jeans and the boots to sandals. I was the same person but I just wanted to look better. In gym the new guys realized I was the wrong girl to mess with. You could dress me up but I was still one of the guys. They would try to steal the ball from me and soon found out they couldn’t. Just because they were cute didn’t mean I was going to let them win. I soon started to wear Carharts on some days, because the guys were afraid of me so I didn’t care what I looked like. Once again I was one of the guys.

High school came, this was a scary leap. First day of high school I wore white Capri’s and a blue shirt with my hair down. When I walked into school people thought I was a totally different girl. Usually I didn’t care what people thought of me but high school made me change my mind. In gym class I didn’t want to sweat because I didn’t want the guys to think I was nasty. I still occasionally wore carharts but it was very rare. When soccer season started people at school realized I wasn’t the girl they thought I was, I was a sports maniac that had one thing on her mind and that was winning. Basketball season is when I really shined making varsity as a freshman and having starting poisons people no longer judged me so I didn’t really care how I looked. Summer came and I played on a traveling softball team this is when I noticed I had to wear makeup. People on my team all wore make up and looked pretty so I figured I should try and look pretty as well. I had never worn make up so it felt weird. From that point on when I started wearing makeup I figured I had to start dressing nice all the time. This is when I transformed into a completely different person. I no longer wore carharts and boots. Even when I was home by myself I had to wear makeup. I wasn’t the little tomboy I used to be.

The summer of my junior year is when I started to notice I wasn’t the same person that didn’t care what people thought. I was a new girl who had to wear makeup all the time and look her best. I remember telling my friend Amanda, “If I never met you guys I would probably still be wearing those carharts.” Once I realized how much I changed I decided I didn’t have to care what people thought about me I was happy the way I was. Sometimes I dust off those old Carharts and put them on.