I have one very personal connection to International Women’s Day.

I imagine many women do. My fourth child and my 10th pregnancy is my youngest daughter, who happens to be born March 8th, on International Women’s Day.

For 6 months I questioned whether my youngest daughter was a viable pregnancy; my pregnancy felt off somehow, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing another child. I did not want to get my hopes up only to experience loss again. This pregnancy came so close after our third daughter that I didn’t have a lot of my normal pregnancy symptoms: my breasts didn’t hurt, I didn’t have morning sickness the same way, and I was in pain, real pain, for most it. My body just felt different. I refused to celebrate her future existence, even though every checkup and sonogram came back fine, for 6 months.

All of my girls’ births have been really fast–freaky fast. And hers was no different, she came out kicking and screaming and fierce. Fierce from the moment her lungs cleared, and she decided that her voice was one to be heard. It boomed that day in the delivery room, and it hasn’t stopped.

My youngest daughter, a girl forever attached to International Women’s Day, is fiercely independent. At the age of 4, I called her a beautifully capricious entertainer–willful to her core. Effortlessly she exhibits every emotion granted to humans. Whenever anyone tries to compare or contrast her to anyone else, she states firmly, “I’m me.” This child demanded her existence, she demands her own significance.

I do not fully understand my place in all of this, other than the fact that I’ve chosen to live everyday as a day in which we celebrate and recognize women.

While I love that International Women’s Day will always be a special day for me, I don’t believe that it’s the only day out of 365 that we should choose to celebrate the fierce, loving, strong, and important women in our lives. This is my story, and this is me, trying to share my own significance each day, and support those who want to share theirs as well. Isn’t that what we all want, to fully unlock and embrace our own significance?

Happy International Women’s Day! Cheers to your significance.