First week in office, and first staff meeting with new colleagues, and of course that need to be introducing one’s self which comes without fail. The turn comes to you, and then you go “I am Vositha, working in bla bla bla since three days (smile)”.

Then the question that follows, just because your introduction that be too brief, and the information be exactly and the only that is known of you (provided of course that one has not had a sneak peek of your CV).

“What were you doing before you joined here?”

At that moment, the LLBs, the LLMs, consultancies or all the bar exams you have sat for do not come to your mind, the only thing you end up with is one thought, your son and the only answer that comes to your mind, “I was a full time mum”.

Yes, “mum” seems to top all forms of identity. It seems to go above all those years of burying your nose in piles of books, years of work that you would put one after another in your CV.

Funny how it does not even take an effort, or hesitation. One word seems to say it all, and you are “MUM”.