Lay down the burden they handed you.
Shake the dust from your feet.
Do it before another auntie asks,
"So... when will you get married?"
Do it before another elder smiles and says,
"A good woman stays and endures."
Do it before someone reminds you,
"You can never be bigger than a man."
Because every question asked in the name of tradition,
every piece of advice wrapped in obedience,
every warning disguised as wisdom,
teaches another girl
that her dreams must shrink,
that her voice must soften,
that her pain must be carried quietly,
and that love is measured
by how much of herself she is willing to lose.
We honour our mothers.
We honour the women who survived
when surviving was all they were allowed to do.
But love should never demand
that we inherit their silence.
We can honour them
without repeating their suffering.
So today,
lay down the burden.
Walk forward.
Speak louder.
Choose yourself—
so the daughters who come after us
inherit courage
instead of silence.
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