Your Identity Isn’t a Sin

Society can be confusing. Especially the people who live in it, the ones who thrive on status, prejudice and of course…the fresh scents of humiliation and hypocrisy. You can’t really tell what they are thinking most of the time. Sometimes they choose to be supportive about certain causes that they feel are important to them. And some of those causes aren’t even that significant. While other causes that really need our attention, society turns a completely blind eye to it. Back when I was a kid, I was forcibly conditioned into believing that there was something genuinely wrong with me. Like any and every other child, I was bubbly, inquisitive and wanted to know about everyone and everything.

I had questions. I had ideas. I had a creative mind that not many could understand. Sure, I did show signs of dyslexia, and writing happened to be my weakness, which ultimately resulted in being one of my greatest gifts. The same can be said about speaking, as I compose most of my raps and songs, and even talk in a stadium filled with 500+ people. Shout out to the councilor in my old school who said I had a problem, and to the teachers who saw me as a good for nothing.

Who’s the champion now?

Where was I? Right, back when I was a kid. Coming to that, I remember when I had attended a family function, there was a man in his late 70’s who had come up to me and told me how cute I was. Mind you, I was only in the third grade and it was normal for most third graders to speak without thinking. WE WERE JUST KIDS. You can’t expect a 9 year old to behave like a twenty year old. It’s funny when adults preach about why it’s crucial for children to make the most out of their childhood and enjoy life as-is. You motivate them to embrace their curiosity driven innocence, until they ask you a question that you, as the adult, feel is offensive. You lash out and tell them this isn’t the way to behave. As if you adults didn’t commit certain mistakes back when you were a child yourself. So, when the uncle complimented me, I wanted to give him a compliment too. And I ended up comparing him to an animal that I felt was pretty adorable (as I’d seen it in storybooks) while others misconstrued it as a sign of ignorance and offense. The amount of backlash I’d received made me develop a shell I never wanted to come out of, because I was made to believe that I seriously did something wrong.

My parents were embarrassed, people ended up avoiding us, only because they thought I was a spoiled miscreant from Dubai. In relation to the ‘Yin and Yang’ issue, a lot of what we do isn’t necessarily right or wrong. What I did back at that function, was just an innocent mistake, which wasn’t my fault. Kids are kids. It is the age for them to enjoy and the age for them to make mistakes and learn from it, without being scrutinized in a manner that forces them to lose their charm or confidence. It is equally important for you, as adults, to make sure that your kids learn to embrace their confidence, make sure they are going out there in the open and making the most out of their time, while simultaneously raising them to be strong, empowered and kind hearted individuals who preach the same thing.Teach the art of self-love. Teach the art of embracing one’s identity, because our image is a reflection of who we are and who we aspire to be. To the person reading this, your identity is never a sin. It is a gift. A gift of love, a gift of worth and a gift of nourishment. Thus, this notion represents thi yin.