The prompts that I had received were stangely cohesive and seem to all convey a broader sense of suffering in silence. That very idea of suffering in silence resonated with me and the first topic that came to mind was my childhood. There are many stories about the difficulties in being raised by Asian immigrants, as parents tend to overemphasize the need for their children to become successful as a sort of compensation for the sacrifices that they have made in order for their child to live a more fruitful life. By living vicariously through their children, they silence their own children's identity. That is how I interpret the phrase "suffer in silence" through my own personal experiences.
I had interpreted the first prompt as a metaphor for the mundane life that the child would undergo in order to maintain high grades in order to appease thier parents. It feels meaningless or useless when you consider the original intent of the child's parents. It feels as if you are trapped in useless territory.
The second prompt was another metaphor for the self-respect and need for individuality that the child desires, or a need that has not been fulfilled. The adjective "quiet" is nearly synonymous with "silenced".
The third prompt is a habit that I have personally developed and possibly other Asian American individuals with Asian immigrant parents. There is the implied message to disconnect or disregard what would be considered "pointless" desires, such as playing with friends, forming hobbies that do not contribute to the development of real world skill, or spending money on products or services that don't lend to one's education.
This prompt is much more straightforward, as schoolwork would generally be boring, and schoolwork was intensely centralized in one's life by Asian immigrant parents. The logic is also simple: no schoolwork done means bad grades, and bad grades means a lesser chance of proper higher education, and a non-reputable higher education would result in a low-paying job. There is a lot of shame towards low-income jobs amongst the Asian American community, and that sense of shame is directed towards the family, not just the individual. Doing the mundane is a necessary evil, and this logic is quite realistic and reasonable. However, stretching this logic to justify living to work, then it becomes more harmful.
The final prompt would act as the central theme of the story, as the main character constantly lacks trust in himself to truly speak up to his parents. The lack of trust is also a lack of confidence in oneself. Trust in the you of now could then be reinterpreted as trusting the inner voices and desire to speak up and attempt to build an identity that iis not favricated by another.