Stereotype is a widely fixed image about someone or something that has existed for long. Particularly in our time, a lot of people make fun of others for one thing they find different from the others and has led a lot of people doing stuff they later regret doing it.
Not one or two times, I have had to deal with stereotypes and I just can't help but thank God for how he helped me overcome them all. Firstly, it started during my early school days. I have always been a big child even as a kid and so I was always the biggest in my class. One thing again, aside from being big bodily, I had this matured look facially too. My teachers would never believe my years till they confirm from my parents. It never got to me because I was still young so I never cared.
Fast forward to when I entered high school, it worsened because as I grew older, I got more mature. I will never forget when I was asked to stop wearing my sports wear because my female teachers said my butt was big. This faithful day in school my form teacher called and asked for my years and when I said fifteen he disagreed and asked me to bring my birth certificate the next day. I heard him discuss with other teachers saying she's the biggest girl in class compared to her mate. I felt bad because it was becoming too much and it seems like they were not going to stop soon. You know they sometimes call me big mama which dey laugh over but I don't find it funny at all cause one time I cried and wished not to go back to school but in all these I summoned courage to finish highschool because I know once am done it would be over and that was how I completed highschool.
Secondly was my accent. After I successfully scaled through highschool people began to use my accent against me. Okay..... the letter R is missing from my pronunciation that sometimes I would not want to pronounce letter R because I know people would laugh. I didn't let that get into because I was matured to not let what people say about me get into me so I took it to be something not serious until one day myself, aunt and her friend were having a discussion. We were mentioning colors and then I said red. She was like what? You pronounce it like a baby learning how to speak and I felt embarrassed. My aunt had to step in immediately for me saying in Nigeria at least 80% of citizens have default in pronunciation. I was embarrassed but it never bothered me.
Even as I have tried to come out of whatever people have to say about me, others are still suffering from it and I just hope as humans we learn to treat others just the same way we would like to be treated.
