As my birthday looms heavily, I find myself anxious in a way I have never been before, mainly because I’m becoming affected by societal pressures to define myself in two main ways: Wife. Mother.
Entering the last year of my mid-thirties, I am neither yet a wife nor a mother, and I now feel like I am running out of time–even though I had not given myself a deadline or ever really desired to define myself by those two roles. While it is easy to say, “Why care what society thinks?! Live your life!” Chimamanda Adichie eloquently offers this perspective: “[R]eality is more difficult, more complex. We are all social beings. We internalize ideas from our socialization.”
Read the full review.
Finding myself in a not dissimilar place as you, I now feel even more inclined to move this further up my to read list.
It’s a super quick read–30 minutes at most–so yes, move it up your list! In fact, since the booklet is a transcription of a TEDx Talk she gave, you can also find the video online.
Your review eerily echoes my own situation-except I just turned 37 and am feeling very old. I loved Americanah but haven’t read this one yet. I’m definitely going to now. Thank you.