Many people see me as an independent woman. Those who were there with me while growing up love to quote a single line I kept repeating from an early age: ‘I can do it myself’. Somehow, I got perceived as a person who makes her own decision, independent from those around me. 

While that’s partially true, what I also discovered is that looking back on my life up until the last couple of years, I’m not sure if the number of those bigger decisions that I made independently can count up to the fingers of one hand. My internal sense of guidance was – and to a big portion, still is – attuned to the collective narrative. It’s only recently that I’ve truly grasped the depth of my conditioning and began to understand how the decisions I made so far, the life I led so far, have never been my own.