The "A Mother To All" Tag: An Overdue Discovery

All my life until my leaving home days for study, I was always at home with my family including extended family most of the time. As the eldest child and daughter of my family, it is expected of me to know how to do most of the house works especially the kitchen work. Even though I was still the most laziest one, I didn't have much choice than doing the work assigned to me.

So it was totally normal when I grew up to do some things even before being told and do it well enough. I don't even remember playing the elder sister role so well on my younger siblings but until later, I learnt more about myself than I ever thought.

I was going to talk about how people started taking notice of my face when I'm not smiling, it's a physical character I'm still trying to fix but I'm not bothered much about it. I do have a nice smile and because of that, people expect me to always wear my smile. I try my best to do that but the only few times I'm not wearing one, I get comments on how my face looks angry lol.

That aside, one character trait I didn't know about myself or maybe I thought it just wasn't a part of what people would give remarks on is, taking everyone in as family and playing mother role on them.

I read somewhere that men do not like women trying to play mother over them when they get married, I got scared that I may be in that category lol. But honestly, mine isn't that severe but it definitely is somewhere inside me to want to act it out.

I first got the comment from a lady, surprisingly. And that was during my predegree program when I had to live with people who aren't my relatives for the first time. I was so sure I'd find it difficult to live with people who I don't know until I found myself in the situation and people just love to be around me.

At first, I didn't know why people wanted to be around me instead of the others I thought they would prefer. It's not like I was rich or very beautiful, so I thought until I asked a girlfriend and she told me like it was something I was supposed to know and that I was just asking to hear it again.

"You na mama people na, you nor fit see person dey hungry come quiet" (her response in pidgin).

You know that moment when you run through flashbacks and just burst into laughter, I had one that day. For the fact that I thought it was normal to act as I did with my siblings to others I came across, I didn't know I was showing a character that not many around me had.

In my university days, I got the title "Mama Lodge" because of the same character and right now, I'm doing my service. I've somehow earned the title again especially when I got another corper join me in my room. Trust the guys to always remind me of this my character anytime anywhere, it's too clear now.