I’m very unapologetic when it comes to expressing myself. I’ve been like that ever since I could speak. Surely, it pisses a lot of people off, calling me shit like “talkative”, and “annoying”, but it never stopped me from being myself as long as I don’t force anybody to listen to me or hang out with me, which also makes me “arrogant” as far as they’re concerned. Thing is, it’s super easy to tell when someone’s not interested in what you have to say, so having mastered the known social cues made me very selective, which is why I don’t consider any random person to be a friend, and I pick my words very carefully to convey a bullshit-free message. E.g., if a person is an acquaintance, I say they’re an acquaintance — I don’t just throw the word “friend” around. I think that’s why listening to Louis feels like interacting with an external version of myself.
By the way, I wonder if Louis has ever been underestimated by a teacher or someone like, “There’s no way you’ve done this yourself.” Oh, man! I’ve always considered that to be a compliment of the highest order, even as a kid, because there’s nothing more pathetic than trying to underestimate me, and failing miserably, so why would I be oversensitive, and assume it’s an insult? Back in 2014, I wrote an essay for my then-girlfriend, and her English woman teacher asked her whether she grabbed that essay from Google. When she told me what happened, I started laughing like a maniac, telling her how amazing it was to hear that from a woman that teaches English in a fancy expensive private school in Casablanca. I always look at it this way, whether you admire or hate me, I rise above, so I could give a rat’s ass about how you feel about me. If being admired or hated is a mere consequence of me bettering myself every day, then why should I care? Seeking strangers’ approval or impressing people you don’t care about is a sure way to become miserable, so everybody, do yourself a favor, and avoid that shit at all costs.
Back in school, I always participated in class, and not a single teacher has ever asked me to speak or read louder, and if my classmates laughed at something I said, I would just laugh along or just do a poker face until my teacher’s like, “What’s so funny? He’s right! Good job, Ahmed!” I remember handing back my math exam question paper, because I never cared or paid attention (since my orientation was literature anyway), so my math teacher was like, “Be a man like Ahmed! There’s no reason for you to cheat. If you can’t answer any questions, just hand over the question paper, and leave.” He, and my then-English teacher were once like, “You should’ve been our classmate back in the day, man. Education now sucks.” 😂 So, of course my then-classmates are gonna be jealous when my teachers praise me like that in front of them. After all, my name literally means “the most praised”. 😂 My English teacher once shut the whole class up like an orchestrator, just so I could tell him a joke. I remember him saying, “People need to listen to you with every ounce of their being in order to understand you, [that’s why I had to shut everyone up.]” 😂