Skin Deep Beauty

Shine brighter than a diamond

MARY IDOWU

Last week, I was at a "girls’ night out", and we were discussing self-confidence, I didn’t get a chance to speak due to time however, and so I have decided to come share what I learnt; my insecurities and how I overcame them.

Growing up as a child, I was always called 'Oh Mary Mary Kampala', usually in a sing song manner. This habit actually started from my nursery two class teacher. It spread fast, and a lot of people picked up the habit. I didn’t really understand what was wrong with me and why people would seek to make fun of me, as I was 'daddy’s girl' and I got all the love in the world from him. As I grew, I started seeing myself in the mirror, I started realizing that I had different skin colours on me; some part of me was yellow (which is my actual colour) and some part of me was dark, like really dark. I had brown discolorations and I had dark, more like black patches on me. I then understood that I was different. It actually didn’t bother me as such because I had my family around me and they always made me feel better.

However, upon getting into secondary school it became a big issue for me, as I was in a boarding school. A roommate relocated from my room to another because she didn’t like the way I looked. I tried every cure that was given to me, nothing worked; rather, I started getting worse. I would have sudden discolorations on my face, arms, legs, thorax that wasn’t there before and they wouldn’t leave. I started to cry a lot and felt kind of depressed. When my parents asked me why I was sad, I found it hard to tell them for reasons beyond me. I was angry. I was angry at my dad; I was angry at myself for being ‘ugly’.  I could see my parents putting effort to make me feel and look better but it wasn’t helping matters, rather it depressed me even more. I have had people call me a tiger, I have issues wearing certain outfits or even rubbing white powder. I had issues with being comfortable around girls because they would always ask questions that I couldn’t answer.

Basically, being different hurt. Asides that, I was short and skinny. I kind of grew to become average height, but I haven’t got fat. Everyone is always bugging me about my size, either jokingly or intentionally. It always hurt. So, how did/do I cope? Sometimes I like to feel like I have the solution locked down. Maybe I do, maybe not.

8 lies that the mother told

A lot of people don't know how much mothers sacrifice or do for them on a daily basis. They pray, they worry, they withhold themselves from many things - just to ensure their children have the best. This is a post by an unknown author, chronicling the life of lies his mother lived for him.... just so happiness would, everyday, be his portion.

The 8 Lies that Mother told.

1. This story begins when I was a child.  I was born the son of a poor family. We often lacked enough food.  When it was time to eat, mother often gave me her share, saying, “Eat this rice, son.  I’m not hungry.”

 - That was Mother’s First Lie

Counted

There's this song I know. I think you guys'll know it too. It goes like this

♬   Count your blessings, name them one by one,♬   Count your blessings, see what God hath done!♬   Count your blessings, name them one by one,♬   And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

How many times have you sung this song I wonder? I'm asking myself as i am you, this very question. You see, when you tell someone to count their blessings and see how impossible they are, they go and get you a list of all the cars they've got, lotteries that they won, clothes they bought, job promotions they've earned, you know....all the big stuff. I wonder, how often do we remember that
we also have to count the blessings of clean water? clean air?

How To Choose Happiness: The Simple Things

"You can look ahead to happiness, and you can look back on it, but it's so hard to notice it to your left or right."

- Robert Brault

The simple things. Those are the things that really matter in the the end once you think about it.

Happiness is something we all dearly crave. Even as babies, the intrinsic yearning shows in the longing for comfort. Food. Warmth. Closeness. Peace. Love. The little things are all a baby requires to be happy. To have its eyes crinkle and shine, like stars dancing with joy.

"What ARE the simple things?" you may wonder. What do they do. In relation to its referring term the "simple things" are just that. Simple.

Love.

Air.

Light.