Unforgettable Experiences Leaving A Lasting Mark

I can never forget many of my childhood experiences but I would be talking about something that has left a big, one I would call an indelible mark on me today. You see, anytime I just sit down to think about a lot of what I am enjoying today, it is all thanks to my parents and also my maternal grandmother, who is still alive today.

During those times, our parents never wanted to see us going to school or church late, even when we still felt like the day shouldn’t have dawned as we enjoyed the comfort of the mat we slept on. Sometimes, no one would wake us up before we did because we were just excited to get to school or the church, and other days, we felt like the hands of the clock should be pushed back to avail us of some more time to sleep and enjoy the sweet dreams we had.

One thing about my parents is that you dare not steal something or take what belongs to you and bring it home. You will definitely be ready to answer loads of questions, and there’s no way you’d be twisting them and coming up with different lies just to cover up because it was like a spirit was always informing my dad of who the culprit is, and he doesn’t need to waste time before fishing any of us out.

_{My brother}

I remember the day my younger brother (today is his birthday 🥳) was coerced by a neighbour who is older than him to steal money from my mom. My brother successfully stole the money and kept it in his bag. My mom tried finding out who took the money, but no one was ready to confess.

When my dad returned from work that night, his mom hinted to him about what had happened. He didn’t even speak a word but had his dinner and slept till the next day. It was as if he was told who the person was, and straight away, without even calling us to confess, he called my brother and told him to tell the truth because he already knew. He was shaking as he confessed and was beaten that day including the neighbor who pushed him to do that.

Since that day, we have always been scared of taking home what didn’t belong to us, and this act grew with us that it’s hard to take something that isn’t ours except we just help to find it and then return it to the owner.

For my grandmother, she was part of who taught me the act of punctuality. Living with us then, we always feel uncomfortable with her because of her actions toward us. Though we were young then, we didn’t understand it was for our own benefit which we would later in the future come to appreciate.

I thought it was only during weekdays when we were going to school that such an act should be done, but no, mama was always bent on instilling such a habit into us. Once it was 6 am, she would pinch us - a way to get us all up immediately instead of the normal patting on the body for us to wake up. She felt pinching us would be painful to make our eyes all clear, and then we would frown to take our bath and dress up. Not only that, even on weekends, it was the same thing and this is for us to do the chores on time.

Every time, we would ask her, “Mama, when are you going back?” And she would laugh and ask, “Do you want me to leave so you can be sleeping as long as you want?” But in all, it was always fun having her around but that one thing made us dread her for always coming to visit us.

But today, whenever I think about such experiences and how it has shaped us in the aspect of showing up at places early, doing things we ought to do on time, and also not taking what doesn’t belong to us but being content, I always appreciate mama and our parents.

I would definitely keep inculcating these attitudes and, of course, show them to my children even though the methods would be different from how we were trained and taught because things are different today.

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_{This post is in response to the prompt hosted by the Hive Reachout community which can be found by clicking this link. I will be inviting @emerald24, @toluwanih and @oluwa-tosin to participate, too.}

_{Images are mine}