Belonging to Myself: Learning See what I Feel

This memoir is about how I learned to belong to myself when I've never belonged anywhere else. From an early age I developed survival mechanisms to cope with insecurity and a lack of belonging. I felt uneasy at home and school. Being different has been a recurring theme throughout my life. The resulting shyness eroded my confidence and made me feel like a coward. Not until going to work did I gain confidence and shed some of my shyness.Despite this success, I still lacked emotional intelligence, especially when dealing with family, in particular my self-centred mother. My failure to address issues lead to a tense and stressful relationship between my mother, my wife, and me. My struggle was compounded by cultural differences in my search for belonging.Only after my mother passed away, was I able to shed my survival mechanisms and find my authentic self.