When I was younger and with mum and dad, we lived down the street. I had lot of friends, most of whom thought I was an uninteresting fellow with so little to offer. I wasn't the brightest of kids, neither was I amongst the dumb ones.

But not a day went by for me without being mocked for my timidity and my being too emotional and sensitive.

They said I weep too much and that's a show of weakness. They said I don't mingle, always indoors, and that makes me socially awkward and incapable. Always scared of mama and wouldn't enjoy the risk that comes with growing; that, they said, will make me gullible.

So in order to be appreciated I imitated them, what they did I did, where they went I went, how they spoke I spoke.

If only I knew the timidity proves my introverted nature that bore solitude where outstanding muses and creativity would have spring up from.

If only I knew that my sensitivity and my quick emotional breakdown was my emphatic self, a virtue that is real lacking in the world today.

If I had known that the gullibility they saw was the leadership spirit in me.

Well now that I have imitated them, the world isn't a better place, even I don't walk in my own shell. I work all day searching for the me you made me despise.

#TheSojourn