finley

For many, the pressure placed on a child by their parents is motivation. Cici, however, was not motivated by it. Cici crumbled under it. Her father, known in their community for his physical ability and mental toughness, physically pushed her from a young age. Every morning until he died he would wake her early and put her to work digging and expanding caves, in an attempt to instil her with a sense of discipline, something he valued highly. She hated every minute. Her mother, a slightly softer soul, but still highly disciplined (as one would need to be, with a partner like Cic’s father), was strict in different ways. Every night, after a long day of gruelling work, her mother would call on Cici to pray, sometimes for hours. Cici is devout and has a strong spiritual connection to her ancestors, however, after such long days, she struggled to meet the dedication her mother demanded of her. Cici never really had friends, aside from the older workers who she would often joke around with (when her father wasn’t looking), her mother and father often argued about this. Her mother believed she was too masculine, with no female friends. Her father said he didn’t care to have weak children. Her father never showed her affection, although deep down she knew it was there. He just didn’t know how to show it. It was a difficult decision for her to leave them, but Cici could no longer handle the pressure, the exhaustion. The minute she left them, at age 97, her physical condition deteriorated. Her body had been so accustomed to working for hours and hours every day, that everything she ate stuck to her like glue. The next time her father saw her, for the first time in her life, she saw him cry. From that moment, Cici has been dedicated to maintaining her toned body, but she has been left with mental scars. She has adopted her father’s mentally tough exterior, however, on the inside she feels she will never be good enough. For that reason, she is highly competitive, highly disagreeable, and has also been unable to develop emotional maturity, given the lack of love she experienced as a child.