BECKY’S DAIRIES: THE CROSS ROAD

Many people pretend to know what we are going through, but in actual fact, they have no idea. They are either insulting you in their minds or pretending to be listening to your story. Well, thank God I have you to listen to me.

Years ago, I was a student in my first cycle institution, close to leaving the Junior High School, Final Examination was close. Everybody is seriously preparing for the big ambitions of attending the very popular schools that everyone wished for. There was nothing to care about. Life was full of all the fun you can think of.

I happen to be the only hope of my parents after my senior siblings arrogantly and stubbornly got themselves pregnant in Senior High School.

My parents were happy their teenage girl was leaving Junior High School for Senior High School. The promises to be fulfilled if I get my first choice were enormous. All eyes on me. I was the only chance of my parents getting a university graduate as a daughter. They really cared. “You need to learn”, “make us proud” were my rising and sleeping bells. My parents repeated it as though they were the only words left in the world.  Unknown to them, I have my own idea of what I wanted to turn out.

My dreams were not in the classroom. I was one of the best Mathematics students in my school; however, I wasn’t ready to spend decades in school to become successful. To my parents, make good grades, graduate with a good class from the university, get a good job and if you are a woman, get married. But I wanted otherwise. I wanted to be popular, famous and rich.

For all my ideas of fame and popularity, I had no plan to how I wanted to achieve that. I just knew it. But how will I tell Mum and Dad? How will I tell my educationists of parents of this idea that is far from anything they believe in?

I did not want to disappoint them too. I wanted them to be happy, but not in the way they wanted it. I had to find the balance between pleasing my parents and making myself happy; being an actress.

If my memory serves me right, the first time I mentioned an actress as my role model, my dad was so infuriated. I could see the disappointment right in his eyes.

In Senior High School, I joined the drama club to learn my passion and what I believe was my talent. I casted numerous plays from Juliet in the popular Shakespearean tragic romantic drama, “Romeo and Juliet” to playing Queen Ojuola, Odewale’s wife and Mother in Ola Rotimi’s “The God’s are Not to blame,” and many more.

Few months after I have left Senior High School, I met this middle-aged man who could not find words to describe my talent on stage. He made me feel proud and noticed. He saw something in me and made me feel I was twice better than the greatest actresses.  Finally, I found someone who sees me even better than I, myself. The best part was that he was a renowned movie director.

He assisted me in numerous ways. And as I write, he has landed me a big contract to cast in an upcoming movie.

As a High school leaver, this is one of biggest opportunities for me to become the star I have always dreamt of; taking the talent from the stage to the screens. However, I cannot make any decision because, I have parents who are yet to come to terms with acting as a profession and very much despise the idea of female actresses. To them, acting makes females promiscuous and puts them in a position of none privacy.

They believe in education and not some profession you can get in trouble with. To them, the popularity, fame, acting, nudity and the likes puts you out there to the world and makes you vulnerable to men. The whole world knows your privacy, dictates to you how to live your life. From their understanding, acting is indecent and it’s enough that their other daughters have shamed them, no need for the third to do same and even worse.

I am at a cross road, confused at what road to take. Your advice can help a young girl make a decision for the future. What do I do?