No - I didn’t much care. I got boobs in 6th grade, I think.
Glarg. I remember reading the “Margaret” book and thinking that attitude bizarre. I was in no rush.
In fifth grade my friends and I espied part of a tampon applicator in the commode in the girl’s bathroom. I didn’t know what it was, but a friend did and filled us all in. We giggled and speculated who it could be, finally deciding it must be a tall fourth grader we knew.
I was in the 5th grade or so when I started sprouting breasts. It’s funny too, because I was in the shower when I realized it, and the first thing that popped into my head was “Oh great, I have breast cancer.” Looking back I am so glad I never told anyone that, how embarassing. One was bigger than the other I remember, and I had to start wearing a bra that was completely flat with two little triangles of fabric. Hardly helping anything really.
I started my period in PE class in the 7th grade, the first week of school. I remember running into the bathroom and checking, and sure enough there was a little blood in my underwear, so I stuffed the crotch with toilet paper because I didn’t have anything else, and went back to class. I just tried not to move around too much. When I went home I told my mom “I think I started my period” and she took me upstairs to show me everything underneath the bathroom counter and what it was used for. And that was that, and my period is still that inconvenient time of the month where all time seems to revolve around what is going on between your legs. It was great the first time, because I was so anxious for it to happen, but after then I was just waiting for it to leave me.
Nope.
I wanted to wake up and find out I was the boy I knew I was…
Still waiting…
My friends and I didn’t have the Margaret competition going on, even all the way through high school, we really never discussed menstruating. But yes, I was eager to get my period and grow boobs. For my period, it was mostly that I was so nervous about when I would get it, I was afraid it would be during school and I would have to <shudder> tell a teacher or the school nurse. It was a bloody time bomb waiting to go off, and it drove me crazy. Of course, when I got it, I didn’t tell my mom until two months later cause I was dreading the “Mom, I got my period talk.”
As far as the boobs, everyone remember that horrible stage where you’re not flat but you’re nowhere near developed yet? You’re stuck with these buds the size of acorns that poke through your shirt. I was at my budding stage for entirely too long, and I looked so weird, I couldn’t wait to be past that.
And after I got my period, I was like oh dear, I want my ovaries taken out, this sucks. I’d read in all the “Becoming a Woman” pamphlets how it’s not uncommon to skip a month when you’ve just started menstruating, and I would pray that I would skip my period. Nope, never happened, just call me Old Faithful.
YES! I think I’ve only skipped once in my life - it was January 1990. Good times.
Wow, I didn’t get my monthlies until I was about 15 or 16 (like my mother), and after reading about you poor souls who’ve been dealing with this since elementary school, I don’t think I’ll complain any more about the number of years I’m going to have to spend with Le Curse.
No, I was not looking forward to it, but what can you do? There was no competition among my friends. My best friend started before me. Had I known then that world-class distance runners rarely get their periods, I’d have worked a LOT harder on my running. 
I developed late in life - I think I finally climbed out of puberty in my late 20’s. I’ve never had big breasts - so I never had to deal with the crap that entailed. I did look forward to getting breasts because I wanted to wear bras, but after I got one, I was paranoid that people were staring at it through my shirts, or that my bra straps would peek out. I’ve since learned to relax about this - but not about panty lines. No way! Ugh!
I was also a serious tomboy and hung out with boys all the time, so even being trapped in a room with only giggly girls for the big talk was disturbing to me.
Getting boobs was annoying because it interfered with the dodge-ball catching skills I had honed. We were always being warned “you might not get your period until you’re 17,” like it was a BAD thing. I desperately wanted to be one of those 17 year olds, an abnormally late bloomer. When I did got it at 12 I was annoyed. “Like I’m PLANNING to have babies in the next couple of years? What’s the point?” I also had very bad cramps for the first few years (didn’t want to go on the pill as that felt like an indication that I planned to be screwing, which was also too much biology for my tastes than). It was the final proof that there hadn’t been some bureaucratic mistake and that I was indeed female.
Later I came to terms with the idea, and decided I liked boys. So I’m either a woman or a gay man trapped in the body of a woman.
I didn’t care about getting my period, although I was very alarmed when it happened. The most disturbing thing was all the extra hair suddenly sprouting where it wasn’t wanted - euch!
I remember listening to all the other girls proclaiming their newfound womanhood and looking at me pityingly when I said “nope, haven’t started yet.” I was 12 at the time and very happy to be period free and hoping it would last a good, long time!
I did want boobs, though, and to be tall. The most disappointing day of my young life was when the pediatrician told me I would never be taller than my mother (5ft.–5ft 1in on really sunny days.) Boy was he surprised when, during my 15th year, I went from 5ft to 5ft 8in, from AA to D, and got my period (I was very unthrilled with that last one and still am!)
I was pretty indifferent to the whole thing. I was ten when I got mine. Although I knew all about it, the first time I got my period, I thought the stains on my undies were some strange massive form of skid marks and so I hid my undies under the toy box because I knew my mom would give me some sort of talk after messing up my undies that bad. After it happened the next couple days, it dawned on me that it was probably my period.
What I really didn’t look forward to was telling my mom. Predictably, I got a lot of “now your a woman, I’m so proud of you” speeches, hugs and she even called my grandma! I’ve always been kind of a private person, and I just wanted to put on a pad and go to sleep.
My period was light for a few years, and then it turned into an eight day non-stop flow complete with cramps that surpass any other pain I have ever felt. There would be times, even at school, that left me curled up on the floor crying, my vision blurring with the pain. Then I discovered the Pill, and all was good again. Yay!
You know, that actually makes me feel better. I’m not exactly sure when mine started, because I’d thought the same thing you did the first time, and then nothing happened for a few months so I forgot about it until the next time (which, if it makes you feel better was a month before my 15th birthday) when it was more than just one small very dark stain that didn’t reoccur.
Nothing I was told or that I read ever suggested that it might not look like…fresh blood… the first few times, so it never occured to me until the second, slightly messier, time that that’s what it must have been. :smack: