Who am I?

Prior to this moment I had never attempted to draw a portrait of me. Tragic.

Thanks to @surpassinggoogle I made my first attempt at drawing a portrait of myself and it turned out to be more like a caricature of myself. Excellent.

I have always wondered who I really am and I have not gotten very far in answering that question. The closest I have been able to get to the answer is who people, especially those close to me, think I am. But in this post I am going to look at it from a different perspective: I will tell a story of where I have been and what I have done and if B. J. Neblett was right that

We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives. And, like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow.

then hopefully at the end of this post I would have succeeded in painting, if not a beautiful portrait of myself, at least a befitting caricature....if there is any such thing.

Where to begin?

Start from the beginning.

My grandfather always advised.

Well, statistically speaking, I should not be here and I should not have any idea of what I'm doing. I was born in a family of six children. I was fourth among six children. Growing up, I liked to think that my parents had four boys and really wanted a female child. So when my mom was pregnant again, they prayed so hard for a baby girl that I almost became one. I must have thwarted their plan somewhere along the line and became a boy instead and to make up for the time lost for the conversion my mom had to carry me for extra three months. Cute, right? Well tell it to my mother.

I was born amidst the love and care of three wonderful brother and parents that would have given up everything for me but there wasn't much in store for them to give up. Growing up was in abject deprivation. When I think about the series of events and circumstances that brought about the hardship in those days, I can't help but think that some higher power had designed it to serve as training for the challenges that life would inevitably, with repetition throw my way. So I learned early in life to take challenges as opportunities for growth. As one fellow pointed out

Since success is becoming more and more difficult to be measured by material things acquired, it is best judged by obstacles surmounted.

I was fourteen, I think, when I lost my dad. The future that looked bleak became so dark that it suddenly seemed that it did not exist. There were times we literally had to look up to see bottom. But I have the most tenacious, strongest and amazing mother. She did everything to ensure we did not know the difference between how things were and how they had turned out. My siblings are equally wonderful. So with everyone working towards one goal, we conquered the obstacle of poverty and we're each able to go to school and live better lives. Great.

I am a shy person. I used to be more so growing up. I'm not sure if I should name it self-consciousness or shyness but the result is that I communicate more with myself than with other people and I keep most of my thoughts to myself. However, I have learned that when I'm motivated to talk, my listeners not only find my views inspiring, they also find it insightful and thought-provoking. But I'm not a good talker so I will stick to writing. I don't consider myself a good writer too and that's why I only write on steemit.

I was born in a rural area with no Internet, electricity, and television. So most of the things I learned before the age of 14 were things I learned mostly from my parents. I think they designed that intentionally. I didn't know anything apart from what my parents taught me and what little I learned from my teachers and fellow students in school. So it wasn't hard to keep me on the straight and narrow path.

However, a fallout of that condition of growing up was a realisation that I had so much to learn. So naturally, I have been learning ever since and I keep learning everyday. Most of the things that normal folks take for granted like cooking a meal, improving on their English vocabulary (which is not my first language obviously), learning the lyrics of a song, studying other culture, paying attention to human behaviour, are the things that occupy me on a daily basis.

I used to worry so much about getting things perfect. This worry limited my participation in discussions, events and any group activity that required impromptu performance. So in college, most of my classmates did not know I was their classmate. Yeah, I was that guy. By the time I graduated with a pretty good result, I realised there is more to life that having a good head for math and sciences. To succeed, one needed to connect to other people at more than just surface level. So I worked on that and continue to work on that.

My first step in putting myself out there was a Mr. Macho competition I entered after graduation. Of course it required wearing nothing but panties in front of a crowd. I figured that if I could do that, I could do anything. So I did it. I didn't win the competition but the crowd seemed to like my performance that up till this day, people still see me on the road and call me "Mr. Macho". Lol.

I later joined a commercial bank where I learned control over my temperament, professional conduct grooming, and best of all getting along well with others. I also learned certain lessons about myself, namely that I get pleasure out of satisfying others, that I value excellence and that I'm not suited to corporate work.

In closing, I must leave you the story of a certain townswoman of mine, not very long ago who felt she had a raw deal in this present incarnation of hers. It was all thorny in her belief. She used to tell people that in her next incarnation it will be all rosy and colourful that thinking of it created excitement and laughter that would not allow her to blow to life fire to warm her meagre supper. Now I can imagine how that woman felt in her own imagination of the glorious life to be since I came on Steemit!

Writing this post for the Untalented Competition by Surpassing Google I just realised that I don't know how to write short posts.

So I will stop here. Are you still wondering who I am? Well I'm a LEARNER!

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day!