At what point does a girl become a woman?

I never felt like I really crossed that line from girl to womanhood on my own terms. The day I went to the hospital to have my daughter was the day someone pressed the fast-forward button on my life.

I felt lost. Unsure. And scared. Really scared.

I was flying blind and had no clue how I was going to make it through the next 24 hours. Every day, that was my reality.

It was the end of girlhood. Things didn’t revolve around me anymore. My needs were secondary. Life was more about how I could be better so I could give my kids everything they needed, not necessarily for my own personal gain.

I had to learn to be more patient, to trust that I knew was I doing, and to let go of baggage I had been carrying around for years that got in the way of being a good mom.

I learned what “strength” really means. I learned how to give more of myself. I learned that things don’t always happen on my timetable. And that’s okay.

At 24, I finally feel like a woman. Before this year, I was just playing house, trying to figure out what marriage and motherhood really meant to me. I was acting. I saw other women take care of their kids and get dinner on the table every night and still look sexy and I thought, “Why does it look so easy for them? What am I doing wrong?”

But I wasn’t doing anything wrong. It just took time.

It took time to adjust to womanhood, to get to the place where I am now, where I don’t freak out about dinner and I manage to get the clothes clean and I even have the energy to be a fully present mom in the evenings and on weekends.

 I feel good now. As a mom. As a wife. As a woman.

pTara is the mother of two beautiful toddlers. Read more about her life as a young mom over at The Young Mommy Life