Mac foundation range calls me a mix of nc 45 and nc 50,

Nars foundation range calls me ‘cadiz’,

On the other hand, majority of the public calls me ‘dark’

And no,

Not in a good way,

To me it seems as though the word ‘dark’ has evolved:

Into a word that breaks your heart,

Into a word that makes you cry,

Into a word that makes you wish you had a lighter skin colour,

Into a word that questions, why god painted you the wrong colour.

Into a word that makes you instantly ugly,

Personally,

In the past being ‘dark’ had weaken me,

I began hating my reflection – in particular mirrors,

Even my mum wished I was of a lighter skin colour,

She went as far as giving me a tube of fair and lovely cream,

Which...of course I shamelessly applied on my face every single day,

In the hopes that I would wake up and be a different skin colour,

…which never happened…

Now aged 22,

It was a steep uphill battle to regain my self-esteem,

I kept falling down when my mum or aunties picked on me,

Or when guy I liked never noticed me,

The more I fell, the harder it was to get back up again,  

But now I can confidently say that I am comfortable in my skin colour,

So I guess what they say it true: what makes cry, only makes you stronger

Nevertheless,

The word ‘dark’ has evolved,

And discrimination issues between different skin tones are yet to be resolved,

And to this day,

I have been praying that no child should suffer,

Just because of their ‘darkness’

The sad thing is: I know that this still happens around the world.