Aanu Jide-Ojo: Beauty in the Scars (2)
“I’m ready” she whispered “I’m ready” she echoed even more loudly and pasted a smile on her face.
“Kitan, you look beautiful” Shade gushed.
“It’s the dress,” she said modestly.
She shook her head, “No God made you well, the dress just appreciates it, and the essence is you”
“Thank you,” she said and then taking Shade’s hand, together they went into the room, and immediately cameras flashed on her face, people stretched out their hands to touch her and greet her. It was an overwhelming moment. Soon they announced her name and she went to the stage.
“Thank you” she started. Making the crowds noise subsides and then the room quietened. She looked at everyone in the room, it was an intimate setting, with about 100 women in attendance, although the noise they generated made them seem like a thousand, as she stood in front of them and observed the eagerness in the faces of every woman on the cushioned chair the nervousness she felt earlier slipped through her fingers, she didn’t know what, but something changed.
She had a microphone attached to her blouse, so her hands were free, smiling she clasped her hands together and started “I am so excited to be here, really I am. I am always excited at the gathering of great minds, and that’s all I see here, so I am really excited” she said, nodding. “The great Bible says the truth will set you free so here’s the truth” she started taking a deep breath “I was once on drugs, meaning I’m a recovering addict” the room was dead quiet at this point, there was an unbelievable silence hanging in the air, she looked at each woman’s eye and saw that she had their attention, “I was highly dependent on them and it was a dark time. I also…” she paused, clearing her throat, the nervousness was slipping back in and she rubbed her hands together and took a deep breath. “I also sold myself for those drugs, part of the money took care of my family but, that’s it. My best friend stood by me through every pitfall, relapse, and withdrawal until I got clean. I started going to church, gave my life to Christ, started the business you are all familiar with and to the glory of God, became successful” she took another deep breath and continued, “you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this but I’ve come to realize that sometimes when we have…stains from our past we attempt to clean them, cover them, bleach them to disappear and blend with the perfection the world expects”
“So when we realize these stains can’t go, they turn to scandals, gossip topics and in the least, weak points, but today my manager said and I quote, “the dress just appreciates it, and the essence is you” Perfect is boring, perfect is impossible, perfect is really not beautiful so to speak. Beauty is in the scars, it’s in the mistakes those diversions are mostly the right turns to success”, she looked down at her hands and looked back up “I can’t go into details but most of the choices I made are what brought me, here, what brought me to this point” she said with emphasis and putting her hands on the platform. “It reminds me of the verse that says that God’s strength is going to be made perfect in our weaknesses. It’s relief thinking about it now” she said smiling and to her relief, the women smiled back. “My beautiful was perfect, flawless, impossible to be, but now, I’m going to define my beautiful was scared, flawed, full of mistakes, a foot-in-the-mouth and I say that with no apologies” the women clapped and shouted.
She smiled and increased her voice, “So repeat after me, “Beauty is not in the perfection, it’s in the scars” which they all echoed again and again, “Thank you” she concluded. As she climbed down the podium and approached her seat, she felt relieved, free; she no more spoke to the women in the room than she spoke to herself. And if how she felt was a measure of the other women in the room, there was nothing more fulfilling than that.
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By Aanu Titilayo Jide-Ojo
For Shalom Truths Magazine (Maiden Edition)