Choices

• Kesiya Regi , Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2021

It was an average day in the Moorani household, women woke up at 6, cleaned and cooked, while all the men slept in and woke up late expecting every meal to appear right in front of them at the right time. Sara was the only female of the 3 other boys that grew up in the house, she had to wake up with her mum and do all the household chores. Sara never liked the idea of this, the idea in which women have to work like slaves from early in the morning to late at night. Most of the time Sara did get up in the morning only because she did not want to overwork her mum and when she didn’t wake up her mum would give her a lecture about how women are the ‘backbone’ of a family and are meant to do it. Sara never let her mum convince her that this was true, because she knew that in this day and age women and men have equal rights, but her mum and dad did not grow up like that and so she knew that whatever she said or did their views would never change. At school Sara was never allowed to participate in sporty activities because her parents believed that it was an activity for boys. This got her mad, but she couldn’t do anything because she did not want to disappoint her parents. A few days later there was an announcement of an athletics carnival held at school, there were so many new events that Sara loved, so her friend Jeslika urged her to put her name down as it was the last carnival of the year. With sadness Sara denied this opportunity and went back home. Later that night, Sara instantly felt a sense of regret for not putting her name down for any events and she couldn’t open up to her family about her situation because they would disown her. The following day was the last day in which spots where available for the carnival. Sara couldn’t resist any longer and went to the signup sheet, but to her dismay all the events she wanted were taken and the only one left was the running race, even though it wouldn’t be her first choice she knew she couldn’t miss this opportunity and put her name down. The day of the race came, and all Sara could think about was her family, what were they going to think, were they going to disown her and be ashamed of her? Chills striked her body and the sound of her heart pumping muffled all the other noises around her. Time went by and the race finished, Sara came 2nd! She was so thrilled and happy, puffed out and tired she looked up and saw her whole family on the bleachers not ashamed but happy and proud, the proudest Sara had ever seen her family before.