Just Be Expressive : A Freewrite

One of the key things he used to see is that I would go with one trouser just to ensure that you have proper education and he was a liberal. He allowed us to explore. And by exploring, he gave us the agency to, you know, take responsibility for our actions. My dad would not, for example, grade you on whether or not you came first or second position in school. Rather, he would emphasize on the fact that, look, you are both average. You are doing extremely well. Focus on your strengths and others will take care of itself.

So I did not have the pressure of you know that young children would face. You know, you have some young girls say if I go home with the second or third position, my my parents flogged me. I went home confidently with my result every single term after school because I knew I had parents that would understand. And they would probe, they would try to understand what the challenges were, why I didn't meet up in certain places. And then they would try to make up for that.

Source

I wasn't always that confident. But, you know, growing into growing in the family where you had support from parents that would encourage you to read, that would encourage you to go out occasionally, I would encourage you to just be expressive. Helped a lot.

So my voice as a young girl was not subdued. I had the confidence to speak when I wanted to speak. I had the confidence to challenge situations when I wasn't properly, you know, when I when I wasn't sure and I did not have the fear, you know of.