The Thoughts Loom

We often talk about individual freedom as if it is something very simple. You have a choice, you make it, and then you live with it. But is it really that simple? What happens when the choice you want to make hurts the people who raised you? What happens when choosing yourself means disappointing your parents? And what if you have been taught, for most of your life, that making your parents unhappy is itself a kind of wrongdoing? Then what exactly are you choosing between? Is it really between what you want and what they want? Or has it slowly become a choice between your own life and your guilt about choosing it ? I think this is where the idea of responsibility becomes much more complicated. We are raised by people who make countless decisions for us before we are capable of making any decisions ourselves. They choose our school, our food, our surroundings, our education, sometimes even the way we are supposed to behave. They do all of this because they are our parents and because th...

  I started with a simple observation that didn’t sit right with me. People say men are strong and women are emotional. But when I actually look around, I see something else. Women express what they feel. It comes out-through words, reactions, even tears. Men don’t. They hold it in. They appear stable, controlled, composed. So what exactly is strength here? Is it the ability to suppress, or the ability to process? If emotions are pushed outward, they get dealt with. If they are pushed inward, they stay. They sit, accumulate, distort. So why is expression called weakness and suppression called strength? That classification itself feels flawed. From here, two completely different interpretations emerge. One says: women are weak. They cry easily, react strongly, get affected by small things. Men carry responsibility, stay composed, don’t break down. The other says: women are strong. They face what they feel, they process it, they don’t run from it. Men avoid it. They hide behind contr...