Terry, we need to talk.

It has been such a wild ride these past few years. Before I met you, I was cooped up and crowded with others who looked like me, but just didn’t understand who I was. Then we met, and it seemed like all of my boxed-up days were over.

We have gone on so many adventures together, and I have seen so many amazing sites. The inside of the FDR Junior High School third floor girls’ bathroom, then the Washington State High School girls’ changing room, all the way to the Harvard all-girls dormitories. We have been through a lot of ups and downs together, but you are a grown woman now and it is time for the secrecy to stop.

All the sneaking around was really exciting at first, but after a while it just gets tiring. I am sick of being your dirty little secret and it is time for me to be exposed for what I really am. I don’t care who knows what that bulge in your back pocket is, I am a period pad, and I am proud!

The first time I came to you, you were so excited to show me to your friends and you were even bragging about me at summer camp. I remember hearing the pride in your voice of us getting together before any of the other girls. Then, suddenly, the bragging stopped.

I was shoved into various pencil cases, backpacks, purses, and even sleeves! Sleeves, Terry?!? Like I was some dirty joint you were trying to sneak through customs!!

I understand that this was how your fifth-grade teacher explained I should be carried around, but what does Mr. Jeffers really know? I don’t think it is going out on a limb to say Mr. Jeffers didn’t really cover the whole “period” talk with the most grace. I still stand by that menstruation should not be coined “Aunt Flow,” to a bunch of ten-year-olds.

I am so glad that I could watch you bloom from that awkward, gangly kid to the beautiful woman you are today, but I am tired of the mystery. I just can’t go on this way. I know I am a bit clunky to fold and hide away, but just know that I will always be there for you, to catch everything.

Just because there are other options now for you, doesn’t mean that I won’t always be here for you. So many people think that as you grow up you must leave your old friends behind, but that just isn’t true. Sometimes the ones who were there for you from the beginning are the ones who stick with you through everything, even if I do stick a little sideways sometimes.

If you are not willing to come forward and show the world what I mean to you, then I guess I will just have to move on. I will be sorry to see you go, but you will just have to find something else to hide from the rest of the world.

I heard tampons are on sale at Walgreens.