Hello everyone, you're welcome to my blog today.
Speaking about weight, we carry the weight and burden of a lot of things within us. Sometimes we carry burdens that we are not supposed to bear, and it tends to weigh down on us and limit us in many ways. I personally have experienced that, and this is definitely not a good experience, I would say, but it's all good, so let's get right to the story for today.
I'll be talking about Annabel today. Annabel is a young lady who happened to find herself in Nigeria, in an African home, and she was the first daughter in her family. We all know the kind of pressure that is mounted on first daughters.
Annabel came from a family that was not financially stable. At least they were able to provide three square meals for their children. She had two younger sisters and a brother, but she was the first child of the family. Due to the fact that the family was struggling financially, Annabel and her mother would always go to the market every day to sell plantain. She would always follow her mom to the market and help her sell the plantain. Whatever they made, they would bring back home and cook, but most times the food was not even enough, and she would have to stay hungry just to make sure that her siblings were fed.
You know this thing that happens in some families where the mother is the only one carrying the family, and the father is financially unstable or has married a man who doesn't want to work to support the family at all? That was the kind of family Annabel found herself in, and it was only her mom who was carrying the family. So out of frustration, at some point, her mother began to tell her to take up more jobs so that she could help her in taking care of her siblings, paying their school fees, and doing many other things.
Annabel is a young, promising girl who had plans of going to university and starting up her own jewelry store because she had always had a passion for jewelry. But due to the pressure that was mounted on her, she was really weighed down by the burdens of her family and neglected herself for the better part of it.
As the years went by, Annabelle's siblings were able to get through secondary school, went to university, finished their degrees, and got good jobs. But what did they do? They looked down on their sister as if she wasn't up to their level just because she had to pause her own life to cater to their needs at a very young age. This really made Annabel feel bad; she always looked depressed and sad, full of the weight of many years that she had lost.
There comes a time in one's life when they just have to choose themselves for once. I'm not saying we shouldn't love our family; our family should be our top priority. But life moves on outside of family. We should learn to do things that would make life more comfortable for us in the future. If it is a degree, get a degree. If it is learning a skill, let us learn it, no matter how small it is. All these things will matter in the future.
People will definitely talk, even family, and will look at you in some kind of way if you don't make anything useful out of yourself. They will not accept the excuse that you sacrificed yourself for them or that you sacrificed these years for them while carrying the whole weight of everybody in the family. So, as we love our family, let us not make the mistake that Annabel made.
I personally have been carrying the weight of a lot, and at some point, I always tell myself to learn to choose yourself, while also choosing your family. Let it all be balanced.
This is where I will drop my pen for Inkwell's prompt.
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