I’m like any other girl who gets suitors.
Some of them we reject, and some of them we consider for a little bit.
One time I got a suitor who had really good manners.
There was nothing wrong with him, but I rejected him.
I just didn’t feel it.

After I rejected him, my uncle called me and said,
“The suitor called and he’s visiting us tomorrow.”
I got upset that they’re taking appointments and making decisions,
Without asking for my opinion.
“No, I don’t agree!” I told him.
“Meet him and then decide,
I won’t force you to do anything that you don’t want,” he said.
The suitor came and I talked to him.
He was okay, but I just couldn’t force myself to like him.
My uncle told him that we’ll get back to him in a week.

During this time my mother and my aunt kept pressuring me because I didn’t approve.
One of our neighbors told my mother “Your daughter is a failure,
Don’t let her reject him,
Or she’ll have a reputation for rejecting suitors.”

It took me a while to respond and when I did,
I accepted him for my mother’s sake.
After they called my uncle to tell him that I accepted him,
I asked them to call him back and to tell him that I will reconsider.
I remained in this indecisiveness for a whole day,
I’d change my mind every half an hour.
My mother stopped talking to me.
She strongly insisted on him.
I thought that I needed to take a short break from home,
So I went to stay with my aunt for two days.
My mother followed me and stayed there with me.
She and my aunt started fighting with me,
To the extent that our loud, angry voices could be heard at the break of dawn.
In front of my mother, my aunt would tell me to accept him,
And behind her back she’d tell me to listen to my heart.

During the time they were fighting with me,
They’d call my uncle and complain about me.
But he’d call me and tell me,
“Ignore them. I won’t force you to do anything that you don’t want to do.”
My uncle’s words encouraged me to reach my final decision.
That I wouldn’t accept him.
So I said no.
After I rejected him, my mother was on my case all the time:
“You’re a failure”,
“He was a good man”.
Especially after she found out that he got engaged.
She kept rubbing it in my face maybe until yesterday.