N...O...!
No! Yes, I mean … No! Sweet, Simple, Plain No! How often have you found yourself saying anything and everything but NO! Looking back, I see a lot of times I should just have said No! No extra explanations, shy yeses, consenting silences, just sweet, plain ol’ NO! As a strong-willed child, I said No a lot. I mean, my dad said I started every sentence with NO. Even if I was going to agree with you, No would find its way in my response. Now a politically correct adult, I find myself not saying No enough! I want to say No more. I found that being agreeable is taken for granted and exploited by a lot of people. Remembering a quote I learnt as a child; “ the gentility of a tiger does not symbolize its timidity ”, simply put on the streets of Lagos, Oó pọ̀ ní ilẹ̀ bí Iyẹ̀pẹ̀! Never take a person's choice to be agreeable as an excuse to walk over them. While some may naturally be agreeable, others went through (or still undergoing) therapy to discover their soft side; you don't...