You can intimidate others without knowing it

25TH FEBRUARY, 2022.
27TH ARTICLE IN ALL.
25TH ARTICLE IN THE MONTH.

Have you ever been intimidated? How did you feel? Was the feeling a good one? Of course not. Intimidation is a way of reducing a person to nothing.

There wasa boy I knew in a secondary school. Francis was a very brilliant chap in school. We attended the same school. He was the best in his class. It was after a term that teachers began to complain that Francis was becoming dull and too quiet in class. We first thought he was sick but later, we discovered it wasn't sickness. We were living in the boarding house. His housemaster spoke to him to find out what the problem was but he said nothing . The housemaster was surprised at the way Francis answered him. He beckoned on the house mistress to also see him. She made him feel at home. She spoke to him at length and he opened up. He said whenever he sees others in the hostel eating their provisions or buying things he is usually very sad that his parents are not rich. Our house mistress encouraged him to work very hard to liberate his family from the present situation. There was still no improvement yet. So, .his parents were contacted and he was withdrawn from the school. We later heard that immediately he got to another school, he began to perform excellently well. We were surprised because he wasn't a small boy so we thought he should be able to understand his parents' condition and hope in God.

We might not have it in your agenda to intimidate anyone but our character does. The way we behave sometimes can affect people negatively. Can you imagine that that Francis' friends did not know that they were the cause of his problem. I guess they did not share what they had with him and it affected him emotionally.

How do you know that you are intimidating a person? A person that feels intimidated by you will not look into your eyes while you are talking with them. They might feel embarrassed by your gaze and uneasy around you. They prefer to write out their opinions than to have physical contact with you. When you don't support someone they feel intimidated even your body languages communicates a lot.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend.