I was born a girl

“What I felt in my chest was so alien to me that I couldn’t explain it to my young self.”

I woke up suddenly at the sound of yelling outside my window. There stood my grandmother with her red turban wrapped tightly around her head making her look fifty years older than she actually is. Old wrinkly skin with floppy arms that I can just imagine pulling down looking like an over chewed chewing gum that has no elasticity and could just be dragged down and lay flat on the floor with no bounce what so ever.

I always wonder how an old woman like her, can spend hours upon hours insulting and screaming at her daughter-in-law. I never understood why she hated my mother so much, and up until now I still wonder why she hated her that much. Anyway, this has been a norm in my house, to scream and yell. I get out of bed, rub my eyes, and inspect my skin, analyzing how many mosquitos bite I got throughout the night. Even with the mosquito spray and bed net we have, seems like these mosquitoes have become immune to anything and can penetrate through any material, no matter how thick the material. Fortunately for me, I get about ten bites, which is better than yesterday.

It's 7 am, and obviously living in a tropical country, you can always expect hot weather, so I don’t need to heat the water and could use the cold water…