Not to be vulnerable, but I don’t particularly enjoy living right now but have no choice other than to stay optimistic and keep going because what else can I do
I got custody of my little sister when she was 14. She’s 24 now. Yesterday she texted me,
“Check your bank. And don’t argue.” 😭
I opened it… and she sent money for groceries.
Said, “Buy something nice too. Not just bills.”
Ever since she started working, she randomly sends rice deliveries to the house, pays the internet before I even notice it’s due, shows up with takeout on nights she knows I’m tired.
I never ask. I don’t expect it. She just does it.
Last week I saw her fixing the electric fan for our younger cousins, teaching them how to budget their allowance, moving through life like someone who learned responsibility early.
And she did. Because we grew up together. Two kids pretending to be strong. Two kids figuring it out without a manual.
So let me applaud us quietly. I was a teenager playing parent. She was a child forced to grow up fast. But somehow… we didn’t break. We built something. And we made it.
Out of ten men, one makes a sexual joke at a woman, two laugh, three fake a chuckle to fit in, and four stay silent. None of them speak up. Later, nine of them still believe they're the "good guys." But from the woman's perspective, the laughter, the silence, the looking away, it all creates the same environment. So when women say"most men are the same," this is what they mean: not that every man harasses women, but that most men help protect the system that does.