your softness is not a curse

thinking a lot about how the world – lagos – constantly tries to rob you of your softness.⁣

how lagos feels like one big caveat emptor. when you grow up on songs of shine your eye and be wise and toughen up, it almost feels like to be soft is to be foolish.⁣

and it is exhausting. to go through life and always ‘beware’. to have to be tough and sharp because this city and its people are trying to take advantage of you. to permanently have a guard up because to let it down is to give room for yourself to be let down.⁣

but the world is already hard enough and I have no more hardness to give. being a ‘hard guy’ is not my aesthetic. so I’m reclaiming softness for what it really means and not all the negativity attached to it. to be soft is to be tender and mild; it is to be compassionate; it is to be kind and lack the harshness of this city. and to be soft is certainly not to be taken for a fool.⁣

your softness is not a curse; it’s not something to rid yourself of.