Two Points
- Miss Chas
- May 9, 2020
- 3 min read
A few years ago, Jidenna hopped on a mainstream stage and shared a story from his childhood about living under the strict scrutiny of his African parents. He said that when he was a young boy, he came home from school super excited to show his dad that he had received a 98 on a test. He said his dad looked at him, looked at the test, then looked back at him again and said "where's the other two points?" While the audience burst into tears of laughter I, along with every other Americanized child with an African parent or two took a tense walk down memory lane. You see, having an African parent is no easy task. While other children get to play limbo by choosing to lower the bar whenever they feel like it, African children have to be trained Olympic pole jumpers. The bar is set at Jesus and anything short of that, brings the family immense shame! lol! Think about it. How many African friends do you have? How many of them are pharmacists? EXACTLY! Be for real. Nobody grows up wanting to be a pharmacists! NOBODY! Now don't get me wrong... We are urged to be lawyers or doctors but when A Biola or Chidi tells me that they are a pharmacists I immediately think.. They said they weren't going to leave you the house or any of the land in Lagos, huh? Most people know that my dad is my favorite person of God's green but along with my big love for him there is this constant need for his "good job." When my dad blinks slowly and nods his head in the "yes" direction, I am like "Okay. Now we can celebrate." Hearing a round of applause coming from an African home means one of two things.. Either somebody graduated for the fifth time or SOMEBODY GRADUATED FOR THE FIFTH TIME! Das it.. Das all!! When I was younger and I told my dad that I like writing songs what he heard was that I was on drugs. I had to obtain two unnecessary degrees in order for him to believe that I can do school pretty well but I just like being creative! Lol! No matter how many accolades and achievements my siblings and I have, in my dad's eyes, there's always room for another one. He's DJ Khaled. Tribal DJ Khaled. The funny thing about African parents is that they insult you and then turn around and say they love you which leaves you smiling while crying- like a crazy person. I'll never forget the day that my dad called and told me he would like to be a grandfather. I had to remind him that he already is a grandfather because my oldest sister has two girls. He then re-phrased his statement and said that he would like to have a grandson! I told him that neither I, nor my older sister are married yet but when we do, we'll work on that for him. He then went on to tell me that he knows I'm not married yet but he only has the energy to discuss one disappointment at a time. Lol! After he roasted me, he told me to never forget that I am loved and then he hung up on me. I have too many African dad stories for just one blog entry but to be honest, I wouldn't trade my upbringing for the world. There's something really special about being told that you are great but you could be greater. It kinda forces you to be greater. Who doesn't want to be greater?? In any case, I feel like i'm in the running to be his favorite child. The oldest posted a Tik Tok of her dancing on Facebook and that drove my dad over the edge. He doesn't understand Tik Tok so he wrote it off as a rebukable sin. I didn't have the energy to explain to him that we don't have to rebuke this particular thing so I just walked him through the process of "unfriending" and sent her the "Dad's mad" text. LOL! Anybody else care to share their African parent stories?
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