Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Summary

Lucy, known as The Eggcademic, reflects on the struggle of reconciling her cultural identity, caught between the expectations of filial piety and her own desires for self-expression.

Abstract

In a poetic exploration, Lucy likens herself to an egg sandwich pressed between a rock and a hard place, symbolizing the tension between adhering to familial traditions and the personal cost of suppressing her own voice. She describes the rock as the societal and familial pressure to prioritize her parents' needs over her own, reminiscent of the story of Mulan, while the hard place represents the dissatisfaction and disconnection resulting from two decades of self-neglect. Lucy questions why society expects individuals to choose between aspects of their identity, advocating instead for a harmonious blend of influences. She expresses gratitude for the Paper Poetry Prompt #3, which has encouraged her to articulate her experiences with cultural identity and the pressure to conform to singular expectations.

Opinions

The author feels that the expectation to choose between cultural expectations and personal desires is unreasonable and akin to consuming an egg sandwich layer by layer, which is impractical.
Lucy believes that one's identity is multifaceted and should not be confined to a single narrative or expectation, as individuals are shaped by various environments.
She criticizes the tendency of others to try and fit her into a single box, emphasizing the importance of embracing the complexity of one's identity.
The author values the opportunity provided by Paper Poetry Prompt #3 to explore and express her struggles with cultural identity.
Lucy urges others to understand that identity is not a choice between opposing forces but a combination of all experiences and influences.

Paper Poetry Prompt #3

Poem and Photo by Author

I am an egg sandwich; Smashed egg smushed between a rock and a hard place.

The rock — familial tradition, filial piety. The expectation to sacrifice my own needs and prioritize my parents’, Mulan style.

The hard place — the unhappiness, stagnancy and dissociation that comes with two decades of ignoring your own voice.

It’d be mighty weird to eat your egg sandwich layer by layer, so why am I constantly asked to silence one voice to fit the other?

Don’t play with your food Johnny, take a cross-sectional bite, a rock, egg, hard place chomp.

Thank you to Amy Marley for this prompt and Suntonu Bhadra for organizing these weekly prompts challenges via Paper Poetry! Eggcited to try out more in the future!

Lucy (The Eggcademic) struggles with her cultural identity from time to time, mostly with people who try to smush her into one box or another. She urges others to try taking that cross-sectional bite to understand that we are a product of all the environments we were immersed in, and cannot hide one to favour the one that others prefer more.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Paper Poetry Prompt #3

Paper Poetry Prompt# 3

for the timeline of September 29- October 9, 2020