Bonnie Taylor sings, “I need a hero/ I’m holding out for a hero ’til the end of the night/ He’s gotta be strong and he’s gotta be fast/ And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight.” What I wonder is why we as women need heroes? I love this song, it seems to speak to something in me that needs that knight in shining armor atop a black steed that will sweep me off my feet, and take out my garbage. Is it just an ingrained idea, 1 damsel in distress, and a knight or Hercules, the male hero that comes to save her? Where are the female heroes? Why aren’t they sweeping the knight off his feet? Because the female heroes are women we do not want to become. They are the spinsters and crones. They are made into the bad guy, or gal, like Cinderella’s sisters. They are outspoken about what they want (Prince) and will do anything to get it (make Cinderella stay home from the ball.) Meanwhile Cinderella just stands there and the man sweeps her off her feet. So women stand around waiting for the knight to come and lift our laundry out of the car, when we should be demanding that the knight help us. That would make us more like the wicked step sisters, but it would also help us to become more self sufficient. I want to be a hero, I just do not know how. All I know is that if I am pretty enough and stand back and wait quietly, my knight will come, and then he will mow my lawn.
● About Me
I wrote and published my first blog post on May 26, 2009. I was about to turn 36 and had been accepted to Mount Holyoke College as a non-traditional student, on my way to completing a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Medieval Studies. I had managed, finally, to know what general direction I was traveling. As a self proclaimed voracious reader I knew that I needed a vocation that would allow me to engage daily with words: reading words, writing words, and hearing words. I also needed to eat, so I navigated my way to a teaching position and I began to fine tune my craft. I love to teach and I love my students, but I also needed to continue to hone my own literary technique, voice, and style. I continued my education in order to delve deeper into literature, making connections, and most definitely, writing. I gained more confidence as a reader as well as a writer of both creative and analytical text. That first blog post in 2009 is short, the writing average, and the topic mundane, but as I continued to learn from other writers I began to understand that to become a better writer I needed to write more. Each time I write and release a poem, a post, or a story, I hone my skills. I invite you along for the ride, for this journey of mine as I attempt to wrangle a wealth of ideas and competing directions into an organized freshly paved path to publication. I might get distracted along the way, but sometimes those detours lead us to amazing views and new friends.
Laura Smith Writer 
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