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As a child, I was an utter nuisance, for my parents and everyone around me, I was a real menace. I was violent, loud, boisterous and a complete bully. Being a girl, it was a little bit disturbing for my parents to see their seven year old daughter, who by the way was always bigger and taller than those of her age, barging through the front doors, yelling at the little rats in her path to get out of her way because she wanted the first choice of chocolate muffins on offer.

As it may seem to you that I am a replica of the street bully amongst the youngsters that you know, and that you know how my parents felt, I actually never meant any harm to anyone. I'm the second eldest of my family of four, and we lived amongst our cousins in more or less the same area. As I have already stated, I was the tallest and biggest of those my age, so I sort of fell into the role of the protector, the safeguard for my young friends and family.
From this I became involved in everyone's business, and was the solver of everyone's problems, and as my role sometimes operated within our little gang of youths, I had to have a very stern and neutral attitude towards everything. This way, what I ordered had to be complied, and what I stated had to be accepted as the last word. I was always attempting to be politically correct, and kept a diplomatic aura amongst us, I was the law!
So no prizes for guessing what I wanted to be when I got a little older. Yes that's right, a police officer. The uniform, the stiff posture, and those wonderful gadgets that would make destroying something a lot less energy consuming; they seemed so powerful. Ha, it seems quite amusing now that I think of it. With the unfair discrimination of women in my culture, and Muslims, (or Pakistani's) in my place of residence, I never stood a chance. Okay maybe those words are a little too robustly stated, but I think it's fair to say that it wasn't going to be an easy ride.
When I got a little older and my little gang of mainly family started filtering because of life choices; I found myself within a society of teenagers who (conveniently enough), hated people who wanted to diffuse a heated situation, because we all know teenagers like conflict; and sneered at those who spoke in a diplomatic tone, apparently because I was a chicken'.
Well, to be honest immediately after puberty struck, I completely switched my dream of becoming an officer of the law' to a glamour model! I know insane right. Well eventually, when I came to my senses, I continued to try and pursue a style of life that would coincide with the clich way of the official law enforcement characteristics. And it was hard to keep up with it, I ended up being too mature for my peers and wasn't very well liked by some nasty pieces of work. And for the older generation, I was always an inconvenience, a thorny problem, for the rule breaking dodgers amongst them.
After some time, it occurred to me, that its almost impossible to keep people happy, no matter how hard you try, at some point, in someone else's eyes, what your doing just doesn't suit appropriately for them; and thus, before my dream got really serious, I came to the conclusion that no matter what happens, in life, I have to be sure that I can be adaptable to any type of change. After all nobody stays they same, nor do situations, and most importantly neither do our choices.

Learn more about this author, Inayah Ahmed.
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