Counterfeit

by Kirstin Chen

isn’t that the mark of a successful gangster? Utterly charming and utterly ruthless from one moment to the next?

to share one’s secrets is to force others to bear your burden; to stay silent is to spare them.

Look, I’m thirty-seven years old and, I’m sure we can all agree, way past being able to credibly blame my parents for who I am today. But that, I think, is the point. I’d never really grown up. I was still that nerdy teenager who dared not dream her own dreams, who craved approval from whoever would offer it.