When you love someone deeply and have built a life with that person, you generally like to know that they’re alive and safe at regular intervals throughout the day. There have been times when due to a no-service zone or delayed flight, my partner wasn’t able to call me for a full day—or a little more. And I panicked. When he got service, he found I’d called/texted a dozen times asking what was happening.
The emphasis in our upbringing was not on being assertive. It wasn’t on being go-getters. It wasn’t on being girls who spoke their minds and went after what they wanted. Those things would get in the way of us being “well-behaved,” you see.
Because of where I grew up, people assume I must be spoiled, and have little perspective on life. They don’t know that my parents actually did not spoil me—they made me get after school and summer jobs and work for any special thing I wanted. They don’t know that I did a lot of volunteer work. They don’t know that I’ve always had friends from various socioeconomic backgrounds. If someone assumes otherwise about me, I let them know that it is them whose behavior is disgusting.
