Abbie Says: #01 "Abbie-tude Is All You Need."

I use to have a permanent frog in my throat, my face flushed red, ears flamed hot, and palms would sweat when I faced any facet or circumstance of this planet. "You Read!" --- the History/Geography teacher would say to me in 8th grade and I would turn into candied beet! And every---frickin---body knew I was sweating it and I would be teased for as long as I would read out loud from that pathetic textbook! I feared bullies and took peer pressure! And I let school teachers harass and scare the daylight out of me. Sweet Lord! I feared my Chemistry teacher like Hogwarts feared Severus Snape! I had zero self-esteem. My words used to be very, very gentle and I used to be extremely malleable. Social pressure would have transformed me into something very disproportionate and unreal, but a change of attitude just turned the course of things. It started with developing a sense of self-worth and went on to become the foundation of a superhero's personality. The world called it growing up --- I call it Abbie-tude.

It wasn't a ladies talk show host and her pep talk that cracked my nerve, it wasn't yoga or attaining Nirvana, I didn't take meth, didn't snort anything, and it definitely wasn't a demon exorcising out of my body. I just decided --- one fine day --- to stop being the world's punching bag. And it was also the 20 kg weight loss by the way that gave me the imaginary crown of Miss Abbieness. When you are the "King Of The World" in your head it doesn't matter who the heck is around you, where you're standing, and if the Titanic is going to sink. God! You don't even need a shortsy friend called Sven standing by your side for that matter --- unlike Jack Dawson --- which is why I lived and he froze to death while his curvy sweetheart lived, floating on a headboard! I mean --- that's Abbie-tude!
So do not accept to go down like that. Develop an attitude, get a voice, some dance moves even! What the heck! Carry a few smoke bombs and glitter for your entries if you have to! Take care if you're Muslim --- they might arrest you! *winks*
When you develop the right attitude --- you know you are not going to be a pushover, and you send the message out that you won't be taken for granted. But then you have to DO something to put that vibe into action as well. It took me a while to do that. I mean, I was all Superwoman in my head when it came to speaking on the topic of bullies and cheats and liars and frauds, right? But you need an extra special X-factor to become Bellatrix Lestrange about it.

--- Let me tell you a story ---

I was in business school and a teacher was really agitating my nerves --- a.k.a. taking me for granted --- Let's jut say he was one of those underachieving men who are not happy with the course their life has taken and they cannot tolerate that their female student is headed to a grad school in the US for an MBA. Let's just say I became that canker sore on his sorry ass that actually gave him hell! Like any other bully teacher that I had been tolerating for more than thirteen years of my academic life, I would have taken his antics. I would have. If only it wasn't time for this Volcano Vesuvius to burst out and destroy Pompeii! I tolerated him eating up my scores on tests and keeping me on A grades that were a hair close to being B's. I took it that he was mentally challenged and he cheated me into becoming his TA and slaving for him when officially the campus didn't even recognize what a TA was. But then one fine day he gave me a C --- that alphabet in my life stands for "CANNOT HAPPEN" --- a C on an MCQ test on BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING! I was graduating business school with a 3.9 GPA and this guy used an eraser to erase and re-do my MCQs --- BASIC MARKETING --- that I cannot get wrong even if I am in a drug-induced coma.

O Lord! Abbie-tude kicked in! And how I SEGMENTED, TARGETED, AND POSITIONED his sorry Marketing ass then! It cost him his job! Let's just exclude the graphic details shall we?
--- That's Abbie tude for me okay? --- Hey! I wasn't all Dwayne Johnson throughout the episode, okay? Very few people can keep their calm and believe confidently in the justice of the system. I believed in God though, and that He will carry my voice out if He has given it to me. I had IBS --- I was pooing all morning of the day when I destroyed him at the Dean's office that afternoon. But it worked out --- I had friends and colleagues who backed me up --- and it worked out. But it took Abbie-tude.

Bruce Before

So the moral of that story is that either you can be the Before Bruce and take the torture from Trunchbull OR you an be the After Bruce and eat that mammoth of a cake called life!

The After Bruce!

--- Now That I'm #Almost30 ---

Oh if you're in this boat with me ladies, you're going to need it. You're going to need your horns and that raven on a stick! That's because the social universe will make sure it invades your space, take you for granted, and commit its maliciousness with you.