Iadmire my mother in some ways, although things between us were never easy. she expected too much from me, i felt. she expected me to vindicate her life for her, and the choices she'd made. i didn't want to live my life on her terms. i didn't want to be the model offspring, the incarnation of her ideas. we used to fight about that. i am not your justification for existence, i said to her once." ― margaret atwood, the handmaid's tale