You are NOT Wonder Woman

I am blessed with a friendship with three women who I have no business being lucky enough to be their friend.  While I tend to be independent, self absorbed and plenty critical, these three woman have said, "We don't care and like it or not, you are our friend--flaws and all."  

We all met our freshman year at BYU and for Fall semester of our sophomore year, we all lived together, in a six person, cinder-block walled, one bathroom apartment.  It was a pivotal semester for all us and while we had a ton of fun that semester; we also each had our own challenges we were facing.  After that semester, the four of us never lived together again, even though individual groups of us did.  I was in the MTC with two of them and at one point, two of them left BYU and moved to California.  We have attended each other's weddings, had babies at the same time, and laughed and (sometimes) cried together.  

One day, our sophomore year, my friend L came to the apartment crying.  In my opinion, she was having the most difficult semester of all of us and she really deserved to be upset.  Things were really hard for her and rarely did she show it.  

While she was crying, my room, roommate, grabbed a Wonder Woman action figure that somehow was in our apartment.  She held it up to her face and said, "You are NOT Wonder Woman.  It is OK to be sad, cry and have feelings and be upset.  You are not made of plastic."  

It was just silly enough, and true enough that it gave L the strength and courage to stop crying and face the rest of the day.  The message was not, "Give up, quit trying."  It was, "I know you are not perfect.  I am not perfect.  Let's acknowledge that and support each other."  

The Wonder Woman message was passed to me and our other roommate.  We all decided, we could be imperfect around each other and give each other the leeway to not be made of plastic but to be human--flaws and all.  

Recently, the four of us were talking about this story.  I learned something I did not know.  L, often carried the Wonder Woman action figure around with her in her pocket.  She said, "It was like a security blanket for me.  I would feel it in my pocket and know I had your support through-out the day."  

So, this week, I decided we all needed to be reminded of this and I put the following care package together and mailed it to my three friends.  

Wonder Woman is cool but gladly, we are not her.  We are not made of plastic.