2013...The HOPE of broken dreams

As 2013 winds up, and I looked at my goals and confessions I wrote at the beginning of the year, I realize I have a lot to be grateful for, its not like some bad stuff didn’t happen in d year but when I look at them now, I’m still thankful. Some years ago I used to write goals for the year and by the middle/end of the year, my plans would have gone the trajectory opposite of what I wrote, leaving me sad. Then  I had a couple of intimidating friends that would call me on the 1^st of January of the new year to ask me what my plans for the year were and what God is saying? Etc, etc. I barely had anything to say, hmmn…then they’ll go ahead to tell me some long and very grand things they had for the year, so I would keep quiet and listen to them and say to myself  “ Chaii, God when would you change my story or even tell me this kind of big things so I can tell this my friends?” lol, so I stopped writing or planning anything... before i fall into the temptation of saying much, here is a story i wrote 2 years ago.

Isaiah is a young man who grew up in a decent home, and could afford the basics of life he is a young graduate of the prestigious university across the Niger. With excellent academic records, his prospects sure look good.  

6 years after graduation, one cool evening in a suburb of Kaduna where he lived a loud scream was heard from his house, it was the cry of a woman. On getting there she had discovered the body of her son, her first son Isaiah hanging lifeless in his room. Beside him laid a note…Extract of  the note read thus:

…mama I know u will be hurt most by my action, but my heart grieves because I could not be of help to you as I hoped too, 5 years after I finished NYSC I still have no job, instead of giving you help since papa is late, I ask you for money to attend fruitless aptitude tests and interviews year in year out. I know you kept encouraging me all the way, but mama I lost hope…I already felt defeated and disappointed by the throes of life, I know my younger ones could not look up to me cause I had nothing but a second class upper degree in chemical engineering that couldn’t even get a job as a teacher….mama what was I living for? That was the question I kept asking myself for a while, but I could not answer it. I see some of my school doing well even those whom I had a better result than they. Mama your encouragement helped me a while, but I got tired of hearing it, I tried to encourage myself and even my friend did too, but I lost my dream...please mama forgive me and ask my sibling to do same, mama don’t grieve for me and I love you all dearly.

The piece you just read is an excerpt from the suicide letter of a young man Isaiah.

As the year comes to an end and many of us review our goals and resolutions we wrote early in the year and we find some accomplished and others not, and some find their lists marked by attempts and not achievement of any sort, some fully achieved and others dotted by no achievement, my friends whatever be your story whatever be your situation, at this time I urge you to hope again, an old saying goes “When There Is Life, There Is HOPE”. As 2013 ends with some broken dreams and some dashed hopes, i urge you to look at 2014 as a new opportunity, a time to dream again. When you look at others with their lands and gold, count your supposed little blessings, and do not be Discouraged. When you stop hoping, you stop living, that was Isaiah’s story, did I say that 2 months later, a job offer letter was delivered to his house?

My friend with 2014 in sight, it’s dare you to hope again, dream again, plan again and try again  through all these, you will overcome.

Compliments of the Season!!!