I Am Never Telling Anything to My Parents
There are things I learned very early in life without anyone ever teaching me directly. One of them was this: some feelings are better kept quiet. Not because they are small, but because there was never any room for them. Growing up, home was never silent. There were always conversations, worries, frustrations, unfinished stories carried home from work, from relatives, from life itself. My parents spoke often.. about bills, about problems, about disappointments, about people who hurt them. And somewhere in between all of those words, I slowly learned my role. I became the listener. At first, I thought that was what children were supposed to do. Sit quietly. Nod. Absorb. Be understanding even when they were too young to understand anything at all. I listened to things that felt too heavy for my small hands, but I held them anyway because no one else seemed to. So I learned not to interrupt. Not to add anything. Not to say, “I’m tired too.” Not to say, “Something happened to me today.” N...
