Maybe If We Talked About Our Strengths Enough

I never wish to be easily defined.

Why do we always talk about our insecurities? It’s as though if we talked about our strengths, it would make us seem proud. Don’t get me wrong, I always talked about my insecurities, the imperfection makes me human but there was never a healthy balance where I let you know my strengths. So here’s to seeing beyond imperfections:

One of the only times I’ve gotten 100% in a test was in an English essay during my final year at high school, where I wrote about almost cheating in an exam. I remember the shock I had when I received my marked script to see 100% written boldly in red ink and with little to no corrections made. I kept sneaking glances at my then-English teacher, as he was also my classroom teacher, wondering if I had gotten the score to encourage me not to cheat in an exam or if he was truly blown away by how well I crafted the essay. Talk about reverse psychology.

Some days I’m shocked at how resilient I can be when I love something, how I chase it until forces beyond my control bring me to a halt. Like the time I learned art after getting out of high school. I talked my parents into letting me learn it from an African artist and then went on to get my own drawing board, sets of pencils, colors, and everything I needed. As time went on, my brother bought me a graphics tablet for my birthday and there started my digital era. I took it further, bought myself a mouse, and started animating. I lived the life of an artist for up to seven years.

My resilience also extends to human relationships. In high school, a close friend of mine suddenly ghosted me. It was funny because we were in the same classroom and saw each other every day, so it wasn’t like a comfortable online ghosting, it was a real-time ghosting where he pretended like I didn’t exist on the surface of the earth even though I was just six feet away from him. I never quit my friendship with him and always tried to talk to him, but it was like a Hollywood movie of realizing that you’re a ghost and nobody can see you. Seven years later, I texted him and asked him why he had done that, he said he doesn’t remember what happened in high school. Hmmm, okay naw.

I love how I find solace in little things, and I love how they also bring me much joy. One time, my sister and I took the microphone and speaker my mother uses for evangelism, turned the microphone on, blasted music through the speakers, and sang along with it while dancing like crazy. We were adults. That day, our neighbors might have insulted us under their breadth but who cares, we couldn’t hear them anyway.

Our minds are magnifiers, and whatever you focus on will direct the flow of your life. So why not think about all the beautiful qualities in and about you? How you achieve everything you set your mind to do, how you cook really tasty meals, or how you deeply care about everything and everyone around you.

Till next time,

Love and Light.

Here’s to 30 days of writing without restraint

Day 19/30