Ignoring Isn’t As Easy As It Seems
it is so easy to tell others to ignore something that bothers them when you are not in their shoes. Or saying that ‘I might have never looked at it if I were at your place.’ is nothing but a white lie because deep down you also know that if you were in that situation you would not have been able to ignore it. All my life I have seen people saying this particular word in every situation and this situation is amusing because no matter whatever is the situation all you get to hear is “IGNORE.”
Someone’s bullying you in the school; Ignore
Someone makes fun of your face; Ignore
Someone constantly belittles you; Ignore
Someone makes your life hell; Ignore
In the cases mentioned above, we are usually given the reference of our religion that people don’t really give on any other occasion. Or we maybe told stuff like “they are influenced, they are elder, they don’t deserve your wrath…..” Islam likes people who do not take revenge. Yes, but Islam also likes people who take a stand against wrongdoers. And who said that it’s about revenge? Standing up is not revenge. Telling them to shut up is not revenge. Yes, doing exactly what they did is revenge. How you people manage to always bring Islam into things like these is something I cannot wrap my head around. It’s too objective that it is always subjective. Unless you take a stand for yourself and tell them to mind their own business is when they start to back out. And it is never going to happen if you keep “ignoring” them like many people tell you to.
But these are not the only places where we are told to ignore. there are a lot more examples that might fall into some other category and these are:
Someone tells you they don’t feel confident because of their skin colour you ask them to ignore it and move on.
Someone says they are not happy with the scar on their forehead (If only we had cool scars like Harry Potter) you ask them to ignore it.
Someone tells you that a certain condition of theirs makes them insecure you ask them to ignore it.
And it all just makes me feel like you yourself are so ignorant that you really have no other word in your dictionary but Ignore. but I also think that maybe it’s not your fault because this is something that has been wired in your brain and it is something you are passing down to the next generations. By pretending it doesn’t hurt or it doesn’t matter you won’t achieve a day when it actually stops hurting or mattering.
Let’s talk about the latter examples. When someone is struggling with something and you tell them to Ignore it. In my case, it is my eye Squint and while most of you do not even know it is there I know it is because I have been bearing it ever since I was born. So yes, only a person living inside the house knows their house the best. My Squint is something that is the reason behind my anxiety and it’s not that I need validation here. This is the one thing where I never need validation. I know it’s only me who can convince me to get out of this phase and embrace my squint. Although, it’s easier said than done.
My Squint is something that stops me from posting pictures and it is something that gives me anxiety. I still wish to go through eye surgery to get it cured but my parents don’t allow me because they are afraid of a situation that ends up damaging my eye. But, what’s a life without a little risk? And honestly 98 percent of the time a Squint is cured but my parents are with the 2 percent and I cannot convince them just like they cannot convince me to ignore it. And we both are right at our places. I got the prescription from one of the notable Hospitals and they said a five to ten minutes surgery and my Squint is gone like the wind. But, my parents wanted another opinion (or might I say what they want the opinion to be) and the next hospital where I went was because of my cousin who happens to be a Doctor there and thus knows Doctors around.
The doctor there kept telling me my eyes look just normal and man, I showed him different pictures where ANYONE COULD SEE MY LEFT EYE WAS NOT LOOKING STRAIGHT INTO THE CAMERA but he just could not see it. I think it was him who needed surgery (sarcasm intended). It was so hard growing up with something you know is different from the people around you. As a kid, I had to face the question “why aren’t you looking at me while talking?” to the point that I adopted it as a joke and my personality. Yes, the people who used to ask me were kids and they did not know what it was and I could never explain it to them. I am about to turn 23 in a few months and I still have to look at my picture a thousand times before posting it anywhere. It is not that I don’t want people to look at it, I know they look at it when they meet me. I don’t go around covering one of my eyes (Though I used to do back in kindergarten and it felt so powerful like idk why but yeah because I stood out xd)
I know there are people who have worse squint than I and in no way am I making fun of them. The whole point of this talk is to let people know it is not as easy as you think it is. And even if you were able to do it, it doesn’t mean someone else will be able to do it as well. Kindly stop saying the word ignore to every other situation someone is telling you. And kindly unwire this word from your mind.
Life becomes easier when people know they won’t be hearing “Ignore” to every problem they share.
