Life gives you two opposite sides, the negative and the positive; it is left for you to choose the best. The ball is in your court and you can toss it the way you wish but make sure you are on the right path, embracing the positive side is best. Recently, I went to a family friend’s home and I witnessed a young lady being ignored and embarrassed by everyone because she was not of their ‘class’, her dress was unattractive, I felt bad but to my greatest surprise, I met her with the intention of advising and consoling her but she however said to me “I am happy about what just happened, it has just made me stronger and determined never to give up, it has given me the zeal to work harder because I know that I am born for a purpose and that purpose must be accomplished. I still love them and forgive their ignorance, they don’t know better”. This act was really inspiring to me because it only showed that she had conquered negativity. She ignored the words but thought of what she could do to soar. That statement made me understand that no matter the situation you find yourself, nor in the midst of great people you find yourself, you must believe in yourself and know that you are special, no matter what happened in your past, you must stand up; strive to be one who will one day be a person that is of great significance and value. My take home from this is that despite what life throws at you, you must see the positive side of life.
Bringing it back home, I will like to share my own story of being positive in a negative situation. While I was in the institution, there was a lecturer whom I met and then gave her a write up, guess what she did to me? I felt really bad because she spoke to me like I was a nobody and made me feel small and inconsequential. I left feeling sad but gingered to make the write-up better so I went into more research about it and wrote better because I wanted her to know she made a mistake giving up on me. Unknown to me, she wanted to push me to do better, I only found out after my thorough research, re-writing and submitting, she congratulated me, and said to me that I must never allow people’s words discourage me and guess what? Today we are good friends.
Another lesson I learnt is that there is always a cause for an action and until you find out, you will live in oblivion to the intent of the other person’s actions. A good name is better than trillions of naira, strive hard to become that which people never expected nor thought you could ever achieve. Prove them wrong and make yourself proud.
ANGEL JAMES
