A childhood belief about periods

I started my period when I was eleven. Not long afterwards I went to stay with my two twin cousins (who were a year younger and had not yet started their period) and my Aunt in their beach house for two weeks out of the summer.
I started my period for about the thrid time not long after I got to their house and was upset and embarrassed because I thought I wouldn't be able to go swimming with them, then they would ask why not.. and I didn't want to tell them that!

I ended up telling my Aunt my "problem" and she suggested that I use the Tampons underneath the sink in the bathroom. I felt like I was able to understand the directions quite clearly on the back of the box after studying them intently for more than a half an hour. So I pulled the bottom part of the applicator from the top piece (figuring it was just a useless piece of plastic) and proceeded to shove the rest of the entire applicator in. I didn't use Tampons for a very long time after that week because of how uncomfortable they felt.

It wasn't until years later that I figured out how they REALLY worked. Needless to say, I felt pretty stupid.