I can clearly remember an incident that happened long ago in my High School days taught me some life lessons by experience.
I grew up in an average religious family where good morals and reputation seemed more important than every other thing including our grades in school, so we (the kids) will never bring home a case unless we are on the defensive. Mum was a teacher and always seemed to care more about the grades of her students than those of her children as long as we are well behaved and actively involved in religious activities.
Well, I was thought of as an introvert and very peaceful by my parents at home but in school I was nothing close to those qualities, I was one of the youngest and brilliant in my class and yet among popular names in school always involved in every saga that has to with group fighting, anarchy, public disturbance and violent protests. I was popularly known by my nickmame "ANX" and also captained my class football team.
What's more? I was always involved in scrabbling for beautiful girls in school, especially new ones. My cousin Emeka and I were in same class and same football team, although we were best friends and always had each other's back we were fierce competitors against each other when it comes to scrabbling for the girls in school. This made us always in a rush to appear and act as tush as possible, using expensive gadgets, stylish dresscodes and hairstyles just to be attractive. One funny fact about this is we were just doing this to show who is boss and for fun but it was costing us a lot.
This incident began when Emeka got a new iPhone from God knows where and started flaunting it in every corner of the school. iPhones had just appeared in the market recently at the time and of course only big boys can afford it. At first I tried to ignore him and his "doings" but the next day everyone were flocking round him for a shot claiming his phone camera is classic blah blah blah.... as if the regular camera is not even clearer than that. I tried asking him the cost of his new weapon (iPhone) but dude won't say a word about it, just keeps on gallivanting around and rushing to tell me how many girls wants his contact all of a sudden.
On my home that Friday I had an argument with Emeka and he jokingly told me to step up by getting something similar to his new phone else I should accept that we are no longer in the same league and we laughed over it. Well that joke actually got me thinking how to meet up and I was really sad that night. Having refused to gist with anyone at home, I isolated myself in my room wondering how to go about this quagmire threatening my ego and reputation in school.
Next morning was a Saturday and Emeka's call woke me asking my plans for football training but I cancelled the training for that weekend for no reasonable reason. I was sent on an errand by my Dad to Uncle Chima's house to deliver an envelope containing about 300 thousand Naira to Uncle Chima later that afternoon. I was glad because Uncle Chima's wife is very good in entertaining me whenever I go there, with delicious meals and lots of gist so I set out immediately. Halfway to Uncle Chima's place I saw a crowd along the street, beside the crowd was a long queue of people including young and elderly, I went towards them to inquire what the gathering was about and was told that two popular money-doublers were in town to help enrich the people by giving them a double of whatever amount of money they pay to them. For a moment I was speechless, I couldn't imagine how I can be sooo lucky and I whispered in my head "Emeka here I come"😉. I decided to double the 300 thousand Naira in my care and keep the extra 300 thousand for myself which I planned to top up for my own new iPhone. I joined the queue immediately and kept complaining of how sluggish the people in the queue were even though it was actually moving fast.
After about 10minutes I was in front of the money-doublers. They were two elderly men on white garments and looking very magical. I was very happy and couldn't stop blushing as I presented my token to them. They gave me a large neatly packed parcel with my name written on top of it which made me wonder how they even managed to know my name as I never said a word to them, I was even more excited about it. I was told to wait in the street till evening after which I can open it else the magic won't work. What do I care, Uncle Chima can wait.
I kept walking around the area in excitement until evening and by then the money-doublers have left and the crowd dispersed. I opened my parcel and saw clean 500 naira notes, I screamed for joy and did some dance steps before I rushed divide the money but to my dismay my package turned out to be papers cut to the size of naira notes with about 5000 thousand naira at the top. I can't explain the waves of emotions and thoughts that swept through my mind all at the same time, I was too weak to even cry or shout. I was confused and deeply hurt at same time. After about 3 minutes of silence I started sobbing slowly as I imagined the reaction of my Dad when I tell him this story, my Mom will be disappointed in me and Uncle Chima's wife won't trust me for a very long time. I remained in same spot till 8:30pm bemoaning my predicament then I saw torchlights coming towards my direction and it turned out to be my neighbours and siblings coming towards me in excitement, I was told everyone have been searching for me since Uncle Chima alerted my Dad that he has not seen me as at 7:00pm. They noticed my sullen mood and tears and I explained in detail what happened between me and the money-doublers but they didn't seem interested in my story but instead carried me home shoulder high rejoicing that I've been found. That night I sorely beaten by my Dad for first time in a long time and I was stripped of some entitlements which included pocket money for school so I had to depend on my Emeka and he really proved himself to be a friend in need till we left High School.
In school my reputation also suffered throughout that session but thankfully by the next session the gist has died already and no one seemed to remember my exploit with the money-doublers.
This incident also made me less excited about high profit money making schemes and unhealthy competitions. As a matter of fact it took some effort to convince me about platforms like steemit and other crypto staking platforms, all thanks to my experience.
This is the end of my narrative and I'll very much appreciate your comments.
Congratulations, your post has been upvoted by @r2cornell, which is the curating account for @R2cornell's Discord Community.