Before you are tempted to criticize someone, examine Your Own life e

'Fola?'
I rubbed my eyes hard, feigning tiredness, hoping she'll see it and leave my life alone.
She didn't get the cue.
Truth is, she never gets any cue.
'Fola?' She called again.
'Uh hmm?'
'Can you look at me?'
Looking at her creeps me out - creeps everyone, but I looked at her anyway, staring like I was in a trance until she spoke again.
'Just look at me, do you feel nothing is right with me? Do you notice the way others look at me? They look at me just the way anyone would look at a possessed person. Do you think I'm possessed?

OK, three tough questions.
Someone chuckled behind me and I turned to see Kam, my best friend, feigning a yawn.
I yawned too, not because I was hungry or tired, but because it's infectious and. . .
'Funmi?' Her voice again, and I know that tone, a tone which means I've got to get answers from anywhere.
But wait, I know the answers already.
But..
This life is just hard.

Recently, I got into a dare.
A dare to go on a fast from criticism, from lying, from anything illegal and things that could take me to an ocean of fire, when my spirit leaves my body.
It's been two days, and I've been doing just fine because I've been in my room those times. There's no way I'll be forced to criticize or sin when I'm on my own.
When you leave the comfort of your room, sin finds you.
Now that I'm out..

I turned to Kam again, I told him about the fast last night, and I could remember how he laughed and told me bluntly, 'That thing can't work. In this part of our world, it won't'.
Now, I understand.
His eyes told me, 'I'm confused'.
Well, I'm confused too. I don't want to give in, but telling the truth? Gee. I could lose my head.
This girl is very mad, I've helped pass the story around that there's something wrong with her head.
I want to tell the truth, but I could get into trouble.
Kam silently begged me to stay out of this mess.
If you ask me, this is how I see the truth.

'Oh, girl! To your first question, whenever I look at you, all I see is a suffering teen who's in need of so many things. I mean, you're not well in the head, you've never ever been well in the head.
So, yes I feel nothing is ever right with you.
To your second question, yes, I notice the way everyone looks at you, like you're a psychopath. They think, no, we think you've gone gaga.
I don't think you're possessed, I know you are.
From the first time I met you, I've always felt in my bones that something is not even right..

---

I never knew I wasn't just thinking, I was thinking and thinking aloud.
I was saying everything I could think of about her.
I never knew I wasn't in my world of imaginations until I saw Kam, his bulging eyes, he was crying.
Crying for me.
I wanted to cry too, but before my tears came, something hit my head.
Hard.
'Psycho', I could manage to say.
Blackout!

.
Before you're tempted to criticize someone, examine your own life. While you may not commit the same act or have the same habit you're about to criticize, you probably have some behavior that could be criticized.
Don't stifle your creativity with criticism!

'Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eyes and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?