This afternoon, we are celebrating Canada Day (and my teacher vacation… and putting my house on the market… and… basically day drinking a bit.)

I am watching my kids play outside, shooting at each other with water guns and water balloons and all I can think of is how my 8-year-old daughter is lucky. She has never had to “prove” her knowledge of whatever she wasn’t supposed to like.

She dressed up as Princess Chewbacca last Quebec Comiccon (who do you think had to hand stitch the whole thing and had to accompany her as Princess Han Solo, tutus and all… in crutches?)

When I was her age, I loved GI Joes, Transformers, Star Wars and hockey, but living in a tiny village, we had to closet my love of all things geek. When an outbreak of stomach flu appeared, I could replace the boys at hockey games and my dad would buy me the occasional Super Man comic book when he patrolled in town. But why couldn’t I be more like my kid sister and play with Barbies instead of wanting to be one of the boys? I was an outcast; I was a girl that could recite all the lines in Empire Strikes Back. I could build my cousins’ Transformers in record breaking time (they were sooooo angry at me at the time!) I had to describe each freaking Mario Bros boss level I had beat to the boys at elementary school because I was just a girl! There was no way I could play video games! I was the weirdo that read Lord of the Rings before being 10 and loved it. I was the strange teen that LARPed with the boys, and kicked their butts!

I am looking at my 8-year-old daughter and thinking man, isn’t she lucky! We are now living at an age were no one is ousted for being different, where living on the fringe is ok, accepted (and even cool!) She can kick the boys’ butts and no one will react! She is a happy Rebel Scum, without having to be a Princess waiting for a guy to save her! Maybe I did something right while raising her, maybe society changed its views on gender equality. Nonetheless, I’m happy she doesn’t have to fight or prove anything to anyone like I did, as a girl-kid in the 80s.