"Eureka!!!

I squealed almost falling off my study chair in the excitement of finally solving a tough nut question that lay boldly in one of the numerous jamb past questions that were sprawled all over my desk,keeping me up wide awake when most souls have sought comfort in the confines of their beds, but I know better than to retire for the night when I have someone who settle for nothing less than perfection.

A lot of people out there would earnestly wish to be in my stead of being an only child. In quest for the love, pampering and special treatment that comes with it, but I'd forgive their ignorance of wishing that upon themselves when its an obvious reason for me being subjected to ceaseless taunting comparison.

"Oh good Lord,Mimi, just why can't you learn to walk gracefully, don't you see the way Amra does, so appealing!

"Mimi,will you roll that veil properly don't you see Mama's?

"Mimi!! Why do you have a fail here, Amra always gets perfect score

"Oh I so envy their Amra's accent, so posh, right? You should speak like them

"You talk too much these days, like a chatter box, lessen it!

"Why do you keep mute these days. Like a statue, mtswww, so annoying.

Why, why, why, no day pass by without me going through the harsh reminder of how I should have being better, how I should have emulated my mums beloved nieces, whom she never let me feel comfortable in my skin on how I should do things to perfection just like they do much on my aunts endless effort to admonish her against doing that.

I always create excuses to exempt me from family gatherings or fake illnesses and cage myself in my room when my cousins came to visit,to save my poor self from intensified comparison and the aftermath of that is me crying my eyes to sleep because It make me feels like a horrible person for avoiding the cousins I so adore in fear of my insecurities.

Taking a peak into my life you wouldn't blame me for fretting out and witnessing sleepless nights studying,when the jamb examination is just a few days away and am expected to badge an outstanding score just as my cousin,Amra did, securing her medicine and surgery in a renowned university. So you could tell why I have to work towards making it just as she did.

"No never, this can't happen!

"199!!! In my house. Is that how you choose to reward me and destroy your future.

"Mummy am sorry but I tried so....

"Shut up, you useless thing.

"Others that made it are humans just as you are but yet you couldn't do what they did.

"You are nothing but a failure. A total waste

"An excuse of a child!

"It took me long to realise nothing good could ever come out of you.

"You are a disgrace, a bag of disappointment

"You will forever be a failure, failure! failure!!

Though I later made it, but those haunting words never gave me a moment of peace in all step I took and the fear of always being a failure became my greatest insecurity, which am sure would forever haunt me till eternity.

Parents please beware and abstain from destroying,crippling and scarring your children with venomous words which weigh like mountains, quenching all living potentials in them to ashes and exposing them to the world's harsh judgement.

Their minds are fragile and emotions run deep. Stop destroying them mentally because words, You can never take back.

Halo sweets, strike a chord?😥