Peace Akpan
2 min readMay 1, 2024

I saw a girl at the supermarket today. She was gorgeous and wore a pretty floral top and boyfriend jeans. I couldn’t see what kind of footwear she had on, because her baggy jeans covered it. She was tall and slender and dark skinned (I love dark skinned people) and she had a birthmark above her right eye. She had pink lips too and long eye lashes, and she had a blonde hair cut. I wanted to be like her, I almost said. She was probably freaked out by too many people staring, admiring her beauty. But I was wrong, those weren’t looks of admiration but of pity. She had a speech disability.

I figured when the guy behind the counter said something to her and she replied in sign language, after a failed attempt to communicate with the muffled sounds she produced. The guy couldn’t understand so I translated for him, which earned me a genuine smile from her.

I had a friend complain about her voice sometime ago. She said it was too light, that people don’t take her seriously when she talks, cause she sounds like a baby. I hope she understands that she’s so lucky to have a voice, because some people don’t even get to talk. Having complete body parts and normal body functions with zero diseases is so underrated because people don’t know how it feels to be deprived of these things.

I used to hate the fact that I can’t see properly without my glasses, but thinking about those who have no hope of ever seeing sunlight, no matter what, has made me a hundred times more appreciative. I hated my hairy legs, but then I remembered the cripple who sat at our school gate to beg. He has no legs, let alone the hairy ones. A lot of people feel insecure about their bow legs, big lips, long nose, big ears, big eye balls, and whatever. But whenever you feel this way, count that part twice when counting your blessings because you’d never want to be in a position where you have no choice, at all. Stop complaining.

Meanwhile, compliment people often, pretty girls especially. It makes us feel ajfkoenbskok...

Whatever Halle Bailey said in "Angel"

Haters would say that isn’t a real word.

Happy new month❤️