When we were kids, my parents’ house shared a wall with a family of four. Our neighbors had two sons and always wanted a daughter. So they would normally make a joke about how I could always join their family if I ever wanted to run away from my mom.
Today, these two boys are now men. The younger one is very…ehhh…okay. I wouldn’t say rich as in rich, but he’s a little accomplished in life. Yeah, let me put it that way. And the older? He’s trying to do something for himself.
I gave my mom a surprise visit today, and normally, when I’m going home, I pass by my neighbor’s house to say hi first. So I did that today, and normally, my neighbor is always happy to see me. But today, she wasn’t in the mood. At first, I was trying to make jokes for her to laugh, but she wasn’t having it.
I later saw her older son coming out of the house, and his facial expression told me enough. So I left and then texted the youngest son to know what was happening because we’re very close. He then told me something that made me very sad today.
Let’s time travel to when we were kids, yeah? When we were kids, my neighbor’s younger son was very intelligent, and the older was an average student. And every end of academic term, a party was thrown for the youngest for being first in class. The eldest? Nothing except scolding. Oh, if I remember correctly, the words that were used on him were very harsh. Very, very harsh.
Fast forward to today, and according to my mom, the eldest son is always arguing with his mom. And he’d always be like, “You said I won’t amount to anything, and nothing good can come out of me. Are you happy now? Are you happy I’m struggling?”
From what my mom told me, the eldest child is actually very hardworking and has been trying everything possible, but nothing seems to work for him. My mom says she believes the young man just needs his confidence back because it looks like he lost it when he was a kid due to the words used against him.
With how hardworking he is, I want to believe maybe his mom’s words kind of manifested in his life or something. I don’t know. I’m not blaming what he’s going through on what his mom said to him when he was a kid, but then let’s take a second to imagine how life would have been if the woman was a little kinder with her words.
I remember thinking I was very ugly when I was in kindergarten because my teacher told me one time I was very ugly. For this reason, I hated being with my friends throughout kindergarten 1, and I’ll never forget that teacher. But in primary one, another teacher told me I was really beautiful, and fortunately for me, it fixed my confidence back at an early age. But imagine I grew up thinking I was ugly. I can’t even think of the level of destruction it would have caused to my confidence as a woman.
You never know how hard your words will hit someone, be it a joke or whatever, so just take the time to make sure you are kind with what comes out of your mouth.
Images are mine