Before I wear the woman’s hat given to me by anyone else, not by my volition, I exist.
Expectations arrive instantaneously, telling me what a woman ought to be.
I have ambitions, thoughts, feelings, desires, wants, needs, experiences, successes and failures that belong exclusively to me.
Names. Daughter. Mother. Wife. Sister, Grandmother. Aunt. Colleague. Friend-these are the many hats I wear.
Giving to others and forgetting to give to the self.
Absolutely, I can make a difference in the lives of others, which cross my own.
Woman — herself, not secondary to anyone or anything else she interacts with.
Others know me by the role that is defined for me.
Maternal does not refer to motherhood by convention, but by the hat and the act of nurturing another.
Autonomy to decide the hats and roles we wear.
Neither daughter, mother, wife, nor colleague defines the whole person; each hat does not equal the whole.
Mirrors of the Mind by Michelle Liew is a collection of psychological and supernatural short stories that explore the quiet unease beneath ordinary moments. These are not tales of spectacle, but of subtle fracture — where memory distorts, silence speaks, and the self is not always singular. In these stories, what is unseen often carries the greatest weight, and what lingers is not what is shown, but what is felt
