Women don’t have to be complicit, and we aren’t there to be kissed. We don’t have to fantasize about the princes that will come. We’re allowed to be more, more than forced kisses and intimate grabs, being told to stay behind the hero or being the quiet caretakers.
Based on my own experience, it isn’t uncommon that through perception, we become a direct reflection of everything before us and around us. Whether it be through generational origins or conditions, we aren't viewed as an individualistic self but instead a notion generated by others — possibly before our own lives have even begun.
I saw what opioid addiction could do. I saw the shaking, tremors and slurred speech. I saw my friends whose parents were laid off and couldn’t afford the Lunchables that many of us had in our lunchboxes. I saw the countless businesses that moved onto the mostly desolate main street – floundering and failing before the end of the year. I saw how hillbilly transplants and middle Americans felt left behind in political endeavors.
