My Parents Told Me to Give My $30,000 College Fund to My Sister — or Drop Out and Stay Home to Clean

is energetically expensive and I had learned to spend my energy on things that produced returns. I thought about them with a kind of clear-eyed acknowledgment of what had been true and what remained true and what I had chosen to do with both.

I had come from a kitchen where I was told my future was a communal resource. I had walked out of that kitchen continue reading …