Thanks for waiting. In case you missed the preview, find it here, so you know what to expect. If you are not sure what Beneath the Smile is about, please check the preview out.

The project aims at looking beyond the smiles of the next person, to see what’s really beneath, what’s really going on? How people really need help and won’t bother saying anything about it but would rather cover it up with a façade of strength, with a smile.
It’s time to look beneath the smile and lend a helping hand. People are going through real things, these are their stories.

We hope that you’d be kind enough to leave a comment. Your feedback is important to us.

Today’s story was sent in by one of our readers @GrizzyGrey

This is his story.

Please Read.

The ‘Beneath the Smile’ Project.

Hey guys! 🙂

My name is Grey. Yes, it’s my real name and yes it’s ’cause I have grey hair.
Anyway, after much twitter sub-ing and plenty shakara from me, I’m here to share my story.

First of all, go down low, I’d like to say that as a primary 3 student I was hit by a car and catapulted into greatness, Lol! Well I was hit by a car in primary 3 sha, we’re still working on the greatness part. 🙂

So I’ve basically lived a good life, always laughing, shy, no excess forming blah blah.. Till well, I would say my expulsion in 2011, lol, it was funny ’cause when I heard, I didn’t understand what was going on. Daniel said I was in denial, then they delivered my letter and it hit me… very hard.

I thought my life had ended. I kept wondering what I was going to do, I knew I had let my family down, every other day, my Dad and I would get in the car drive all the way from Festac to Ota to drop one letter or the other; for about 2 months after the expulsion I couldn’t sleep without having taken a shot or 2 of the father’s Remy (well, I did need it, do you know how hard and stressful it is to beg CU? Lool ). It hurt me so much that I was putting my pops through this kind of stress, stress he didn’t need.

To be honest, good thing about 2011 was Oreoluwa, lovely girl and I had a business (Counterfeit Designs) to run, kept my mind off things. Thanks to God, my Family, friends, Girlfriend at the time and Counterfeit Designs, I got through that, I left all my worries in 2011 and entered 2012 with an open mind, started at Aptech in January 2012 and it was good, well my birthday was wack (lots of jargon between I and the Father) *shrug* but it was not so bad all together, till the blessed 24th of September. I got into an accident **details of the accident have been sealed by the Central Intelligence Agency** and I had to be in police custody for 4 days, 3 nights (yup! It was that serious!). Bitter Sweet experience it was, tbh.

I was hardly in the cell though, but while I was there it was scary as hell, I just sat at the corner and thought ‘why me?’ ‘Am I the only person in Festac?‘ ‘Am I the only one in my family?‘ ‘How do I keep getting into these things?‘ My pops and family again, dropped all they were doing and were at the police station from about 8am till very late everyday trying to sort out the problem.

I had never seen my mother so sad and worried in my life, she had to stop coming to the station after the first day cause she was crying almost through out! I felt so bad, I was causing my mother pain and everyone kept telling me it was not my fault and truly it wasn’t but I kept wondering “well, I’m sure the other guy doesn’t think so”.
Don’t get me wrong though, cell time had it’s fun moments however few. I remember when they slapped one guy and he screamed “AH ABEG I’m A CHILD OF GOD” lmaoo, out of nowhere! And I never slept in the Cell, always slept in an inner room with a bed. God got me out of there, only God.

Nothing made any sense for a while, I couldn’t even cry, I tried, I thought if I just cried once everything would be okay but nope, I couldn’t. Anyways I got out of holding cell and in about 2 weeks I was going through a breakup which of course I had caused :(, in another 2 weeks Canadian Embassy said they weren’t going to give me visa *sobs* this one pained me sha, I mean, I had waited four (4) months for them and they said ‘No’. 4 months I could have used to make other plans, but I couldn’t cause they had my passport through out their process. I left the visa application center with my mouth opened, confusion and sadness clearly all over my face.

My  mates were leaving me behind, it was sad ’cause this was the same thing my mother kept shouting about, “Don’t let your mates get ahead of you, you might hate yourself if that happens.” And she was right, it’s not a good thing to feel left out. I had to start from square 1 with the planning, I’m not one to be moody, in spite of all these I try to keep a smile on my face cause being sad doesn’t help matters, it just irritates you and other people around, so here I am in Houdegbe North American University Benin, one dead school on the shores of Cotonou (almost literally), somewhat faded, giving you MY story.

What’s yours?

• • •

A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS?

N.B. The project goes on with Tomorrow’s  ’His Story, IV’ by Outkast

You can still send in your own true stories to obafuntay@gmail.com

You can subscribe to the blog (at the right column to follow the project, if you are viewing with your mobile, just scroll to the end of this page to subscribe)