You will worry about having to wear glasses at the age of 12 but eventually, you’ll discover the wonders of contact lenses and the benefits of poking your eye with it at ungodly hours due to sleep deprivation.
You will feel ugly because you had a protruding front tooth that never quite allowed you to have the privilege of closing your mouth but you got braces. And despite suffering cuts, ulcers and immense pain for a year and a half, you ended up with perfectly straight teeth.
You will hate your hair for being the uncooperative bitch that it is, flying all over the place, but it has somehow learned to tame itself after years of abuse through straightening/rebonding (or whatever it’s actually called because although you’re a girl, you only know so much about hair treatments), and also the fact that it has been blown around with 2 years’ worth of UK air. It is now a manageable mane, tied in only the two ways you know how – a high bun or ponytail – because other than not knowing much about hair treatments, you also cannot braid your own hair.
You will despise the day of your first period because you thought you were genuinely going to die from bleeding but it has become a norm in your life now, although it can be a pain in the ass sometimes – causing you the inconvenience of having to remember to buy your lady products, lest they run out, and you end up bleeding on practically everything on the planet.
You will feel like the world’s most awkward teenager in your cargo pants and baggy t-shirts but in time, you learned the art of dressing well, or at least, decently. Although you still prefer to just be in a pair of jeans and a tank top, you don’t look so shabby anymore, and you learnt to put on make up.
But most importantly, you now know how to love yourself and to accept the flaws that you have – the occasional pimple that you keep poking at, at the side of your nose; the crooked foot that causes you to trip over yourself; and sometimes, the unruly mess on your head. So long as you have a hair tie, all is indeed well.
I love me, even if I do say so myself.
And also, I forgive the lady who called me Mr Denise Lee last Wednesday when she contacted my office to talk to me. I have never, in my 22 years of life, been mistaken for a man. Life has a funny way of surprising you everyday.
x
