Fragments of Home

3. The droplets running down our face while hearing our mother crying alone in the middle of the night.
4. Someone who has different identities, living in the in-between.
10. The sacrifices our mothers make for our well-being that the world does not see.
12. What our mothers displayed, even when society called it a struggle.
14. What we switch to navigate and survive different social environments.
16. The nagging feeling that you are not enough as a child of a single mother.
17. The word people normally say, but we have to correct it to “parent.”
18. The flawed, loud, emotional, and authentic space we built for ourselves.
20. Our family’s hopes and efforts in us to “succeed.”

1. The person who gave birth to us, and one of the only ones giving us unconditional love.
2. What we didn’t know we were building until we matured.
5. The reason why we garner accolades for our mothers.
6. The emotion that motivates us to wake up every morning when nothing else could.
7. What we are, and wherever we go, “home” is carried on our backs.
8. What we often use to shield our stories from judgment.
9. The invisible line between society’s expectations and our “real” lives.
11. The label society puts on mothers for prioritizing their well-being first.
13. What we are trying to find now, to communicate our narrative in our own language.
15. Being two different things at the same time.
19. What society sometimes made us feel, but we were never by ourselves.