Score |
600
Albarka.
Student, writer. @ Federal University Oye-Ekiti
Student, writer. @ Federal University Oye-Ekiti
A Cage With Love On Its Bar.
<p><br/></p><p>Our parents are our everything, as we normally say. We promise not to disobey them. </p><p><br/></p><p>We promise to make them proud and do all the things they expect of us.</p><p><br/></p><p>But how do I do all these things in the cage you put me in?<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>You call it protection.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p> You say you are shielding me from the evils of men. But how do I grow?</p><p><br/></p><p>How do I grow without experience?<br/></p><p><br/></p><p> How do I achieve anything if I am never given the chance to fail?</p><p><br/></p><p>You want me to meet great minds, but I’m not allowed to make friends. <br/></p><p>How do I do it?<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>You want me to be happy, but I’m not allowed to find things funny or appealing. <br/></p><p>How do I do it?<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I’m always indoors.<br/></p><p>I’m not an introvert, but you chose to make me one.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I can’t go out alone without feeling like a fool.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Mum, I want to be free.<br/></p><p>“Son, you have no choice. It’s for your own good.”<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Oh, please. It isn’t.<br/></p><p>You are doing it for yourself.<br/></p><p> You want to build me into the version of me you have imagined. <br/></p><p>But have you forgotten that it is my life?<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Let me make my own decisions. I’m an adult.<br/></p><p>“The world is cruel.”<br/></p><p>But not being allowed to experience life is cruel too.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I look like a fool when I go out with you.<br/></p><p> I look around like some alien in a state I was born and brought up in.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Yes, I can’t know everywhere.<br/></p><p> But don’t you think not knowing what the sky looks like is one punishment on its own?<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I’m tired.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>It feels like you are controlling my entire life.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>A boarding school with strict restrictions. You almost homeschooled me.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>A private university that I have to attend from home.<br/></p><p>A job that I have to work from home.<br/></p><p>A lady you chose for me so that she will always keep me grounded.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Don’t you think you’ve raised not a man, but a son who doesn’t know how to find his way in the world?<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>You were both given your freedom when you were my age, yet you think giving that same freedom to me is asking for too much.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I feel left out.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Suffocated.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Behind, despite everything you have given me.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>And please, don’t play the “we gave birth to you” card.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Yes, you did.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get to have a life of my own.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>This really isn’t how I wish to live.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I’m tired.<br/></p>
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