Sticks and Stones

"Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt", the saying goes. While that is true, only to some extent, words have been known to do great damage. Although, I have repeated this saying, I know from experience that words may not break your bones, but they could break you or kill. They are capable of killing dreams.

Growing up I got a lot of comments from people who thought I was too quiet. They also knew I wanted to be a Lawyer. "How will you speak in court", they would ask. Like I had problems with speech. I did not! I just did not talk a lot. I got that all the time. Some would even laugh. They went on about how I would not be able to speak in court. And you know that if you hear something long enough, you start believing it, right? Especially, as a child. But I knew that I could do it. Law and Justice is something I was passionate about, still am. I knew being quiet would not stop me from speaking up for my client when I needed to. Today, I am a Lawyer. I speak in court and I wonder, "what on earth were they talking about?"

As a child, even into my teenage years, I got a lot of snide remarks. "You are too slow", they would say. Even my own Parents joined. Hearing that all the time affected me negatively, a lot. The more they said it, the more clumsy and sluggish I became. I believed them. I was too slow. I was born that way. As I write this, the hurtful memories come rushing back. I struggled a lot with this as a child. However, as I grew older, I told myself I was going to stop being affected so much by what I heard. So when I heard them with one ear, it passed out through the other ear. I no longer let it stick. Soon, I stopped believing that I was sluggish. It was just my gentle nature showing. I accepted my self for who I was. If anyone could not accept me, I did not need them. I think I even started to say back to anyone that said I was slow, " I am not slow ".

People can be so mean but a lot of times they do not know the damage that words can cause. Once, a classmate in secondary school laughed at me for having thin legs. It crushed me. I did not know I had thin legs. She made me see that :). And in my third year in the University, my one time best friend calls me 5 naira yam leg =D. I did not need any other person to tell I had thin legs. Till date, I hardly wear tights. Infact, I just started to. For years I admired girls in tights, but I didn't dare wear them. I had thin legs. Once I read about a girl who had a surgery to make her legs fatter :). Did I consider surgery? :). It's not like I could even afford it! Well, thin legs or not, they're mine and I love them.

You do not poke fun at a person for something they have no control over. You do not call someone names for whatever reason. I know how much words hurt, so I try not to do to others what was done to me. WORDS CAN KILL. If you do not get any other thing, please get that. God bless you.