The Burden of Balance

The Burden of Balance is a layered conversation about the emotional and cultural weight carried in the pursuit of stability and selfhood. Rooted in deep values, heritage, and ancestral memory, the work reflects the struggle to balance the many pressures that come with settlement in a new environment—cultural expectations, familial responsibility, academic demands, and the ongoing negotiation of identity. It explores the internal conflict of holding onto one’s roots while being pushed to evolve, to perform, and to reinvent. In this tension, balance becomes a burden—an invisible labor of survival, adaptation, and becoming. The piece speaks to the resilience required to exist between worlds, and the quiet strength it takes to carry everything without falling apart.