Take Me to the Riot

A complete stranger had asked me the other day to define myself in three stories. How do you tell someone you’ve met for a whole five minutes about personal things? Things you clutch too closely to your chest it has become you? I tried my best.

1. I am my mother’s daughter. I am Alex’s twin. I am Viki’s and Yuri’s sister. I am a part of that sum which makes me whole, a sum I call family. I told him about the time when we cried endlessly when my mother suffered a stroke. I told him that whatever strength I have with me is because I am weighed down and pulled up by the people who love me the most.
2. To be my mother’s daughter is to want to change the world. I always talk about my mother. I always cry when I talk about my mother.
3. I am a sum of all the kindness of all those around me. Family and friends–even those who are not talking to me, at the moment. I told a complete stranger that I think I am who I am because I am surrounded by kind people—the people who are most dear to me are full of kindness and light I can only want to become a better person.

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