Television personality, Berla Mundi has disclosed how disagreements with her father while she was growing up left her very hurt and bitter.
According to her, she and her father never saw eye to eye on any issue as she was unhappy with him for being overly strict on her and divorcing her mother.
She said she could not fathom why he divorced her mother and was always against her exploring as a child thus, felt he was just a bad person who did not her to progress in life.
This, she revealed, made her dislike her father and held grudges against him for a very long time growing up.
“As a father (and a daughter), there were things that we didn’t agree on. I think that we had similar spirit so we didn’t jell. You know the thing about like poles not attracting. He was very strong spirited and so was I so he wants things done this way and I want things done the other way. If I had lived with him after secondary school, I don’t think I will be in the media because there is no way he would agree for me do that. He would want me to be a banker.
We always used to clash and I didn’t understand that about him. I never really understood why there was a divorce between him and my mom so for a long time, I just felt like he was just a bad person and growing up with him was very tough because he was overly strict and I didn’t also like that aspect of him so I grew up very bitter,” she recounted.
She added, “For a long time, I didn’t understand what he may had been battling with which is why he acted the way he did in the past so it took me a very long time to forgive him. And for that, I grew up with a lot of hurt and it took him passing for me to now realize that maybe I should’ve let go of whatever was between us, I should’ve forgiven him. If I had done that maybe, life would have been better for me and I wouldn’t feel so guilty after he passed on”.
Her resentment towards her father, she indicated, affected her life negatively, leaving her with temperamental issues.
She, however, added that she has taken steps including emotional intelligence therapy to manage and control her temper.
“I’m quick tempered. I used to be very angry. I’m trying to control it now. I used to snap so easily but I have a friend who introduced me to emotional intelligence which is something I didn’t even know about but anytime I’m angry, this person would say ‘but I have taught you to be emotionally intelligent’ so then he would send me links to go and read. I would take some test online to see my level of emotional intelligence and all that. It helped me to work on myself”.
