Albino

I've been in moments where I retrospect into my childhood and I said, "thank God not all childhood dreams and wishes came to past". When you take a second to think about it, you'll realise the (outrageous) demands we made to our parents or even got down to our knees and prayed to God. If all my wishes did come true, I would be an albino with a shiny black hair like (the white) Michael Jackson.

I used to think albinos where white and being white to me was cool. This could be because the cool people I saw on TV then were white, Rambo, Jackie Chan...Ultimate Warrior. I would pray reverently and would try not to barb thinking that was the secret to having the long hair I desired. But NOW, I hope people don't take this as offensive but the last time I saw an albino standing, arms crossed, I thought it was a mannequin striking a complex pose. I remember an episode of Oprah where a female albino spoke about being discriminated against, then I realised that being white/albino were two different things. I use to think albinos would be difficult to point out in a land of majority light-skinned but now I know.

I do feel for albinos. There was a guy in my area who liked to constitute with his peers after school. For obvious reason he was always recognised as a culprit in all their mischief. You would see...dark-skinned, dark-skinned, albino, dark-skinned. That made me conclude that albinos might be unsuitable for undercover agents. That's on a lighter note compared to the value they were given in some cultures. There are reports in countries including Swaziland where albinos were believed to posses spiritual powers and were sacrificed. But that is just soooo wrong. What I once prayed to have...envied, now became what I'm glad I didn't have.

What I learnt from this experience was sometimes we don't know what we don't need until it was too late to have it.