Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

“I didn’t think I looked much like my family. My eyes were soft, dark and set in and small. A tuft of hair at the ridge of my forehead made a curl that Mom would brush back after a shower, calling me Clark Kent or Superman. Alone, I’d trace the rubber ringlet of hair on my Superman toy while twirling my own hair, looking for other similarities. When I was older, around middle school, Mom dug out a picture of her from that age. I was shocked to find, beneath her earth-toned school uniform and mop of 70’s styled hair, what looked like a reflection of myself: the round jawline, pointed into a narrow chin, that slight arc of eyebrows above her small eyes, the soft blotching of sunspots across her cheeks and nose—a self-portrait, of sorts.”