Whoa – Natalie Maroun almost got arrested this week. I promise you! Uh huh! She was driving along in her sexy little sports car in the evening when she realised her lights weren’t working very well. So she flashed her brights to test them out. A cop happened to be near-by and went into chase mode.
Natalie, being Natalie, decided not to stop at 10pm, alone, in the middle of Johannesburg. So she opted to drive to the nearest police station instead – with cop in chase. She popped her hazards on and finally came to a grinding halt when she reached a safe place. The police officer, by then, was furious. He wanted to know why her lights were broken, why he had to chase her for kilometres and why she was behaving weirdly. Natalie Maroun, of course, climbed right back into him, telling him that it’s her constitutional right to drive to a police station when being followed by a stranger (albeit a policeman) at night.
The officer then called her ‘suspicious’. Now. Let’s think about this. Elegant businesswoman. Driving at night. On her own. Dressed to kill. Suspicious? No! (Except for the ‘dressed to kill’ part!) Natalie got a little feisty over the ‘suspicious’ comment and began to threaten the police officer with laws, language and her ‘death look’. He soon caved in and told her to drive off before he chose to arrest her. So she did – drive off. Go Nats! She didn’t let the officer abuse his power through manipulation and threats.
Funnily enough, at varsity we had a power-mad librarian who used to try and assert his power over us. He would withhold books from the ‘Overnight Section.’ These books could only be kept for 24 hours as they were rare, but vital for all students to use for certain projects and essays (without them, we would literally fail). He would use his ‘powerful position’ to influence us students – a librarian! Some kids would bring him sweets and chips, others would give him money and I believe the madman even got a date or two! You know, some people turn their authority into an ego trip and it’s so very not acceptable. But at the same time, if we allow it, we are just as much to blame.
High Heelers, we should never let others to turn us into victims or to manipulate us with their position and power. When someone asserts their authority over you in an incorrect way, stand your ground and defend yourself (unless you’ve had 10 alcoholic drinks and are stopped by Metro Cops while driving 210km/h without your license – irresponsible move!)
May I encourage you this week, to be the High Heelers who keeps standing tall even when others tug at those 6 inches and try to make you fall, so that they can stand taller. You cannot control how others act, but you have 100% power over how you react and you own your power.
High Heelers, be responsible and make good decisions so that when you stand your ground, you’re doing it for all the right reasons. Now dig those heels in and don’t let anything shake you this week!
Cheers,
Jo
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