The Heart of a Child


 I have this amazing app which I use to rant. It is called Writer Plus. Frankly, there is nothing very special about it-no dictionary, no thesaurus, no audio feature, nothing at all. It is just a plain page that says 'Have something to say?'every time I open it. I know it seems inconsequential, but time after time, it pushes me to write. Today, I opened it in anger.

The day started out very well, I must say. I took a dreaded test and I was able to smile afterwards. I travelled home safely. I was able to watch movies without feeling  any iota of guilt (med school is horrible like that). To cut the long story short, I was on Instagram (my favourite) this evening, and I saw this story about a secondary school boy that tried to poison his classmate. Out of curiosity,  I googled it to get the full gist, and it split my heart into  two. Maybe you have heard the story before, maybe not, but here it is: A 12 year old boy was caught trying to poison his classmate. His reason was that she was taking the first position, which had been rightfully  his until she joined the class. Apparently, before she came,  he had emerged top of  the class in their continuous assessment. Guess what class these two are in. Jss1. Yes, it made me want to cry too. Guess what he wanted to use to end her. Sulphuric acid and ethanol.  Guess how he got these.  He broke into the chemistry  lab.

Everybody is talking about the world and how it is changing. All we ever say is that recession is hitting the country  hard, or that young girls are now wearing short skirts and dating their fathers' peers. Maybe we should start talking about the heart of man, or should I say the heart of a child? How can a twelve year old be so cruel and calculating? Usually I have something  to say, but today, I am speechless. I just have a few words for this young child. I hope he reads this.

 Hi honey. From the piece I read, it sounded like you had repented. I just have really bad news for you. I am in a class of 107 students. Some of us had amazing WAEC results, some were very average, others had to combine two results to be in this class. Do you know what is funny? In two years, most of us will be doctors and no one will ever ask about that terrible Jamb result or the almighty  WAEC. What is my point? Years from now, the term 'continuous assessment ' will sound foreign  to you and secondary school will be a distant memory. Don't let something  so insignificant ruin your life. People have probably told you how disappointed  they are in you.  I'm sure you have lost 99% of your friends  if not 100. Your life is not over yet. Just open a new chapter in a new place and do it right this time.  Set goals that will make you better than your old self and work towards them. Jealousy will only cage you to one person's success and you can definitely  do better than that. Life is too hard already for you to give people a reason to judge you long before you can prove yourself. You still have your whole life ahead of you and you should make amends while you can. Dont forget that I am rooting for you. I know you still have a beautiful heart in there.
Yours truly 
#TheRitaSide

 PS: No matter what your parents tell you, second place is an amazing position. The real problem is failing.

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Comments

  1. Chinedu15 April 2020 at 08:19

    Even failing is totally not a problem... It gives one the opportunity to improve

    ReplyDelete

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