IT's OK TO TRY: A LOTUS FOR MRS. T

(A rejoinder to Chimamanda Adichie's JANELLE ASKED TO THE BEDROOM)

There are two major mistakes I made in my one year teaching experience. The last of the two left me with a mark: I had formed a writing club for my young students. We gathered one a week for evaluation. One exceptional student who was one of the best the college would ever know performed just a little above average. I was surprised and I pushed with all my might to shoot him up. One early morning, I saw in front of my door, a nicely carved post card from my dear student that read: ...BUT AM JUST BETTER AT MATHEMATICS. This post card changed my life forever.

It would be quite unfair to make a contradistinction between Michelle Obama (who had been a public officer half of her life and who had spent years preparing for the role of first lady) and Melania Trump (who had been a model all her life and whom the office of the FLOTUS had chanced upon). America is a nation of stereotypes that does not admit of mistakes. They hated Michelle too for she was black, eight years after, they wish every first lady were to be black. They hence, rob their citizens of the essential humanities that season life. When these ideals takes its toll on individuals, the resort to addictions and suicides and serial killings either as ways of getting off play or paying back to the society that wanted so much more than they are equiped to offer.

Melania Trump? She has not yet been broken. The shoes are much bigger than her feet but she is walking just fine. She is desecrating her sanctuary: As a model whose work is to take care of her skin, the purple bags under her eyes, the shrinks, the white hairs. As Chimamanda noticed, her legs would not stand straight. But unlike other American officers, she still places her fundamental values on high. She is Catholic and she knows that one cannot be half-Catholic. She can never support Planned Parenthood or Abortion even if it would place her husband in the white house for second tenure.

She knows that only 7 women in the world have the privilege of meeting the Pope officially dressed in white: Queen Consort Leticia of Spain, Queen Emeritus Sofia of Spain, Queen Matilde of Belgium, Queen Paola of Belgium, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, Princess Charlene of Monaco, and Princess Marina of Naples, as a member of the House of Savoy.
She dressed in black on her visit to the Vatican against the criticism of the Americans.

She still finds time to cook for the family and put kids to bed and make secret donations to charity. She had abandoned her model-kits and is struggling to learn how to dress and carry out official functions as the Flotus. It pains me in the heart that Americans and my own model, Chimamanda Adichie still demands for much more from this lady who only had the office of Flotus entrusted upon her. If by chance, you read my note, dear Melania (As you still prefer to be called), just know that Adichie herself flouted her own DANGERS OF A SINGLE STORY and presented a single aspect of your struggle as your whole story. For everyone caught in this same web of wild expectations, just know that it is OK to try and it is OK to make mistakes, And Mrs. T is trying just fine and soon Americans will love her for being human.

Ikem.