Making a Scene

by Constance Wu

It hadn’t been anger after all; just hurt in disguise.

Lots of women I know express worry that they are becoming like their mothers. In a way, I feel like I’ll never know if I become like her, because she never really got to be herself.

Having kids so young changed everything. I feel such guilt about it, sometimes. Like me and my sisters stunted her potential. I know that is the most cliché thing in the world for a daughter to say… but it’s just that there was so much she could have been. But instead, she broke herself so everyone else could blossom.

As he told me the story, it was a strange new feeling for me—that moment when you realize your parents had entire lives before they had you.