My name is Brooks but most people call me Shauty because I’m short. I’m twenty-seven years old and I’m from Nigeria. I was born into a family with a humble background. I come from a family of eight which includes my parent and my five siblings. Right from the moment when I could differentiate my left from right, I have always struggled to attain my place in life, even to this very day. My siblings and I were born with good looks, coming from our inherited beautiful genes. My mum is a very gorgeous woman both on the inside and on the outside. She is one of the reasons my siblings and I want to live, grow and become successful in life. This is because she has been through and is still going through some brutal, gruesome and very bad experiences. Over the years, there has been a lot of criticism and blame from my dad’s family. They have never liked her much and it has really been a pain in the neck for her.
Despite a lot of things that have happened both spiritually and physically, our zeal, determination and our mother’s endurance kept us going without looking back. She taught us how to put our minds, heart and hands to work when we strive to achieve great heights. Everyday we work hard, endure and believe that eventually all will be well with our situation. Meanwhile, my dad is a complete contrast from my mum`s outstanding, noteworthy and encouraging personality. He never wanted me to go to school, to be educated properly on how to read, write and understand things beyond their face value. For him the best thing for me is to learn a trade and make some money. This was his wish to suit his selfish and egoistic interests without any consideration of my future.
My dad is a Muslim and comes from a polygamous family. He has no control of his temper and does not have any care for those who endure his outbursts. He often shares stories of how his father treated him in a hard way which he often calls “ the iron hand”. This may be the reason why he has such a hardened mind and behaviour towards people. What my dad cares about is the money that comes from working.
Going to High School was a task that needed great strength and determination, because we had to trek for about 40 kilometres each day to reach the school. I remember an event that happened a few years ago when my younger sister was working at a supermarket. My dad never cared for her well-being or her health. All he cared about was the money she earned from working at the supermarket. He collects the money she gets from her place of work before she got a chance to do anything for herself with it. She later got smarter and stopped giving him the money she gets paid. However, my dad is always self-centred, unkind towards others and interested in himself alone. He buys and takes care of himself alone without a care for his children`s well-being. Our living room has all the furnishings and gadgets an ideal living room should have, but we his children are not allowed to touch anything let alone enter the living room. We live each day of our lives in sadness, fear and frustrations from his treatment. If he is not drunk, then he definitely must be angry. If he is not angry at all he is surely disturbed by our laughter and happiness because for him our laughter saddens him. He does not allow us to eat to our fill or to eat anything nice because we were not deserving of it.
Interestingly, my dad is the second born of his mother. He and his siblings dislike each other. They barely even look at one another let alone communicate. What I noticed while growing up was that everyone in his family did not like the other. None of them went to school. My dad claimed that he went to a High School even though there is no evidence to that effect. My dad has a car which he does not allow any of us to ride in. The only contact he allows is that I his first child should wash it on a daily basis. I am not allowed to open and clean the inside of the car, just the outer part. I am always happy to clean the car because it is not so much work for me. He has a house he built for himself despite the fact that he still lives in the house he inherited from his father. That is where I used to live before. We do not know the exact location of his house, but some of our neighbours know where it is located.