Jennifer a 16 years old girl living with her mother and had no other siblings, she grew in an environment where going out at night and coming home late was a normal habit, her mother is the type that doesn't care what the daughter does with her life instead when the mother comes back home she looks for one or two things to insult Jennifer for using abusive words on the young growing girl, so she grew wild and uncontrollable without the supervision of anyone, she was always seen in the area with one boy or the other and we can say she's following after the footsteps of her mum because the mom also follows married men.
Well it's normally said that what we sow we reap, Jennifer reaped from the field where she sowed by getting pregnant for a guy who denied having an affair with her, after all attempts to remove the pregnancy she decided to keep it, this young girl that had hardly finished secondary school is now tied down with pregnancy at home and she's left with no option than to sell roasted maize by the road side for survival. That is the story of someone that lives in our neighborhood and how she rewrote her story with her bare hands, we wouldn't want to put the whole blame totally on her because the mother contributed fully to this shaping of Jennifer, I am fully in agreement with the saying that goes "our family shapes us into who we will become in the future" with the story I have given above you would tend to agree with me that the shaping of every child is been done in the background where he or she grew up in.
I am so grateful to God for giving me the type of family I grew up in where we thought our parents were too strict for no reason and they didn't really wanted us to be free even for alittle while, yess I grew up in a family that before I go out to even play I must be granted express permission even though sometimes I prove stubborn head and go out without telling anybody which apparently results to me shouting in the night and pleading for mercy, yess I grew up in the family where the clothes I wear on my bed were always checked before I step out of the house and if I happen to have any new cloth on I would be asked who gave it to me, I grew up in the family where we were taught to be contended with what we have at home instead of going out and envying what others had, I grew up in the family where I wasn't flogged because my report card from school wasn't impressive rather I was encouraged that I could do better.
We never had enough yet my parents worked harder to make sure I went to the best school and had most opportunities people had, I grew up in a family where we have family morning devotion whether we liked it or not and we were poured water on our faces when ever we slept off while praying, we always go to church atleast twice a week which means we are not only Sunday goers, I grew up in a family where my parents had never used any abusive words on me before and I never saw my Dad beating my Mom, oooh yess I grew up in a family if love and I always ask God to give me a family like my father's own Right now I may not be the best version of me, I may not have gotten there now but when ever I look back and see where my age mates are now I know that the coverage on my head where not for nothing, the training we received were not for nothing and up till today I still follow them not because mom and dad aren't here but because I have seen that it's in this pattern that great men and women were birthed.
So cheers 🥂🥂 to love and to family, I wouldn't have been who I am today if not for my family, and a big thank you to my online family for the journey thus far.
All images used here belongs to me.