People saw me naked.

I vividly remember when I was about 11 years old that a group of naked Asian women changed me forever.

It was summer time, school was out and we were on a family vacation at Sol Duc Hot Springs in the Olympic National Park in Washington. My cousin Gitta and I spent most of our days swimming in the pool looking fashionable with our matching goggles and nose plugs while attempting to realize our dream of being scouted for the U.S. Olympic women's synchronized swimming team. It was all fun and games until it was time to hit the showers. That's when the group of older Asian women were butt ass naked in the communal shower crouched down scrubbing each other's backs--and that's when I was scarred for life.

Ever since (and most likely before as well) I have been a bit nervous with the locker room culture. My private parts have remained private. As long as underwear was involved I was feeling okay. Girls at my high school rarely showered together and I can count the times I knowingly exposed my own breasts or vagina on one hand.

I don't think it is or was just me that is made a bit uncomfortable in these situations, and I don't think I can lay all the blame on the naked Asian teamwork that struck me as so odd as a pre-teen. I have noticed a trend in American culture that especially girls and women are very shy when it comes to changing and showering in front of each other. Honestly, no girls that I was friends with growing up showered in the locker room, unless it was behind a curtain. However, I remember hearing countless stories of how boys stole each other's towels, whipped each other with said towels and or made ridiculous scrotum shapes at each other and then called each other gay afterwards.

Why is this that men flash themselves and we hide? What a strange fear, phobia, or whatever you can call it. It doesn't quite seem to make sense; all us women have the same parts and I don't believe that we are so ashamed of our bodies that we fear exposing them. I know that is not the case with me, not at all. So why the cover-up? Why the awkward putting on your underwear under the towel routine? Why can't we make vagina shapes at each other and get a good laugh out of it and then call each other lesbians afterwards (heavy sarcasm)?!

My experiences with the Vagina Monologues in college give me some insight into this issue; I think in general women are indeed very shy about their vaginas. I would also like to point out that I have made some generalizations here about men and women and I am the last person to insist that men are alike because they are men and women are alike because they are women. Some girls let it all hang out and some guys change in the stall.

But the point is I am challenging myself to get over this. I showered in my complete birthday suit last night after a kick ass soccer training at the gym in Brumunddal.

People (even people that I knew!) saw me naked and I only minded a little bit.