I want to share a lesson an additional lesson I learnt in 1998. Before the lesson let me give you a background of who i was and still is.
I have always been a person who believed people have a right to do them just like we have a right to do us. Even as a child!

That i was stubborn should not come as a surprise to anyone and i would always stand my ground. I was and still am very respectful but i do not fear and i would always say it as it is and of course i received whatever number of lashes of cane without flinching

I remember an Uncle that wanted to break me ( He was my mother's immediately junior brother) and one day he was beating me and as usual i did not flinch nor move. He practically cut all the branches of a tree to beat me while his wife watched.
Still i did not flinch

Anyway i said it as it is and would also defend the one injustice was meted upon be it my siblings or total strangers. I dey buy market!

Many hated me for that & many loved me depending on who the truth favoured. So i learnt at a young age that the truth didn't matter to many. What mattered was whether it favoured them.
I leant not to be bothered abt what people said about me. What bothered me was saying the truth

The way adults would be angry when the truth didn't favour them was so hilarious to me as a child.
My mother would say to me "Go joor! Nobody wins in your court"! I would tell each where they did wrong and where they did right

I remember one time my Sister had a disagreement with one of our neighbours who was a friend too and just a few years older than us and my mum took it personal. I tried to tell her my sister was the one in the wrong but she wouldn't hear and she quarrelled with the boy.

For months my mum and sister weren't talking to the boy and they expected me to follow suit, i told them i wasn't and didn't. He did nothing wrong and i wasn't jumping on any keeping malice thing just because my mum was. They all settled their fight. My mum was mother to all

One time also my mum was angry she had advised someone and the person didn't heed the advice. Good advice it was.

I had to sit my mum down and ask her why she felt this person had to take her good advice? If this person ask you to what he is doing would you do it? She said No! Then i said why do you feel they have to do what you say?
My mum was silent.
I was a teenager!
Life is about choice

I always knew my mind and what i needed to do and i was stubborn to stick to my guts. Many things i was told i cant do or dare. We shall see i was told several times and they have seen today.
Knowing who i was gave me capacity to respect people's choices