TEACHER AND FRIEND

Few minutes ago I received a text message from a phone number that wasn’t registered on my mobile. It ended with the sentence “thanks for being a teacher and a friend”. The sender would not reveal himself (I assume he is male!) and I decided not to hunt for the phone number despite every plea from my hormones to advance a search

I have gotten texts that swelled my emotions, calmed my nerved and immobilized my racing thoughts, I have also received texts that scared me, tormented my meditations and even corrupted my disciplines but in all, these texts are always welcomed. I love to read written matter, I love to write and I wouldn’t deny that words mean a whole world to me.

It may baffle you to know that those little messages are actually what I take as rewards for the little influence I feel honoured to have in peoples’ lives, especially youths. My ministry as a lecturer gives me the opportunity to speak to a substantial number of students and the privilege to be part of their forming process isn’t one I take lightly. I could be perceived as harsh, too demanding or even too strict for comfort but I know what gold ought to pass through before its value is appraised. Even bad people love good people when it’s time to call spades, spades in their favour.

The civil service rule and code of conduct is not designed to enrich any of her subscribers financially. If you argue it socially, academically or likewise, you may make noticeable progress but I dare to tell you that no rich man sticks to those rules and outlives his desire for financial independence. The best is to be comfortable and await your accommodation in the pensioners lodge.

I didn’t enter the profession to be rich. I am a born communicator and I want to communicate principles that have helped me become a better person. I want to lecture with a difference and see people pull out of the crowd and become who they ought to be. I can’t make all the difference being just me but I can make all the difference that I can afford, one student at a time, one listener at a time.

I put in so much effort sometimes that I get weary but when I get a text like the one I just got, it revitalizes me beyond description. I have seen my students become heroes and mentors because I didn’t let them do what they wanted to do and I didn’t let them hear what they wanted to hear. It’s sad to see people “groomed” yet potentially useless to their environment in almost every redeemable ramification.

My father told me that the proof of an educated person is to be useful to himself first then to his environment. That single rule has been my guiding principle and I try to inculcate the idea to any one that chances my path.

I am not the best at what I do but I am a force to reckon with and I know it vividly. I came from nowhere to where I am now and I haven’t stopped moving. Since I have the chance to make things better, I wouldn’t wish for more but devote my time to making the best of what I have.

Text messages like this always extracts smiles from me and gives me inner joy even when they come anonymous but as much as they serve as a singular form of encouragement, I am working myself to the standpoint of doing what should be done with or without motivation for Eccl 9:10 reiterates “ work hard at whatever you do. You will soon go to the world of the dead, where no one works or thinks or reasons  or knows anything”  and In the words of John Ruskin “The greatest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets from it but what he becomes by it”.   I will even get better at being… TEACHER AND FRIEND