SUN SCORCHED
In 2012, I was on an errand for one of my mentors in her Peugeot 504 salon car on the University of Ibadan campus. I quickly went to my hostel to pick my ID card before I drove to the school gate, where I was to pick up something. On my way out of my residential hall, I saw two ladies waiting for a cab in the hot sun in front of Zik hall. I stopped to give them a lift to the school gate. The minute I stopped in from of them, they walked away to the other side. I politely asked them where they are headed, one of them said they were going to the school gate. I asked them to join me but refused and asked me to go.
I sped off. I didn’t even feel bad. I respected their decision; after all, I was a total stranger. I got to the school gate, bought what I needed to purchase, and I returned my mentor’s car. All these took me roughly 15minutes. As I dropped the car key, my mentor asked me if I was free because she would like me to help take a friend’s car to the car wash. I was open, and I took the other car key. It was a Toyota Highlander SUV.
I took the car and headed for my hall to pick my computer so that I can work while they wash the car. As I was driving out of the hall, the same girls that asked me to go when I drove a Peugeot about 30 minutes earlier were still there standing in the sun, but this time, they waved me down. I had the glass wound up, so I guess they didn’t know I was the same person.
I stopped, wound down, and they were surprised to see that I was the same person. I smiled, and I told them I was going to the car wash on campus around Zik hall and not to the school gate this time. I sped off.
Then lessons here;
1. In life, don’t be angry when you are judged by what you drive rather than what is driving you.
2. The earlier you understand that not all the love you receive from people is original, the better.
3. Some people are in your life because of what you have and not for who you are.
4. If your self worth cannot be separated from the things you have, then you are most miserable of them all.
He gives understanding to the simple.
Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU