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Lifestyle
























                               Raised By







                               Beyoncé










               y first Beyoncé sighting was   My mother and I are ‘copy and   and found that my home was white
           Mas exciting as everything       paste’. It’s not just her face that I   – even the living room. Copy and
           seems through ten-year-old eyes.   have – I have her flow, her strengths   paste. It made me wonder – how
           In retrospect, I had no idea what   and also her typos. The main design   could I be the same as my mother
           Bootylicious meant but the beat,   difference is that I have a bigger   but also so different?
           the flare and the flow of her wispy   mouth. We feel the same things but
           blonde hair made me long for fame   express them differently. While my   I had a sister once and she fed me
           and womanhood.                   mother faces injustice by thinking   all of her music. Through her, I went
                                            deeply and finding a resolve that   down every Beyoncé transition
           On Talent Day, a trio of older   maintains internal and external   and even after she passed away,
           grade seven (7) girls performed   peace, I dig my heels into the ground   I just kept on going. For some
           Bootylicious. What they lacked in   and launch a campaign to correct   years, Beyoncé was that sister who
           originality, they made up for that   the injustice. My mother would   felt everything deeply and sang it
           with cheer and confidence. They   complain about my brothers’ filth   better than we ever could. I was too
           wore coordinated denim outfits and   while cleaning up after them; I would   young to feel any of it, but it was
           mouthed every lyric. The timid girl   shout about it for fifteen minutes   fascinating to see my sister in her
           in the trio was Beyoncé for the day   then create a cleaning schedule   marriage, living out every word from
           and she tied her shirt up to reveal   where each of us gets to clean for   her song ‘Dangerously in Love’.
           her midriff as it was the Beyoncé   at least a day. Both scenarios would   A man proposed to me and I could
           thing to do. I remember each tassel   end the same – the house would be   feel my mother tense, praying hard
           on their clothes, the light sheen of   clean.                      that I don’t copy the typos of what
           sweat on their skin and the rickety                                marriage came to be in her life. I
           stage they stepped on. I remember   Mother’s bedroom is paradise. Her   was supposed to be happy – and I
           it all because of how it made me   bed is a cloud and she even has   was – but I just couldn’t shake off the
           feel. In the four minutes forty-five   a white net that creates a barrier   ‘what ifs’. The proposal turned to an
           seconds performance, I forgot    between her solace and the world.   engagement which morphed into a
           myself. I forgot about the rigid hair   Everything in her room is white and   wedding that is now a marriage. On
           on my head, forgot my mismatched   for a long time she tried to convince   most days, I know I have nothing
           ill-fitting outfit and the ugly patent   me to do the same with my own   to worry about. Maybe typos get
           leather shoes that my father insisted   room. White is hard to maintain,   corrected when you proofread after
           were fashionable. Beyoncé did    especially if you are a makeup    copying and pasting.
           something to those girls that they   wearing, snack consuming, series
           in turn did to me. In those seconds,   binging dragon, so I said no. I moved   On Sundays, my mother blasted
           I was cheeky, cool and I daresay, a   into my own home, buried my head   gospel music and cleaned the whole
           little Bootylicious.             into Pinterest and local furnishing   house; she would have cleaned
                                            deals; then one day, I looked up   the roof if she could. It was torture






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