A childhood belief about periods

I'd been told that a period was when, once a month, a woman would bleed. Now, I was a fairly laid-back little girl, so this idea didn't bother me much. After all, the only bleeding I'd ever witnessed was from little scrapes and cuts, so naturally, I thought any bleeding would only last a minute or two. I was more than a bit pissed off, then, when my period came along and lasted a full week!