Please, Do Not Forget Me

This life is a continuous wheel in motion. The clock keeps ticking irrespective of our individual whims and caprices. Today, we might be moving with the wind and tomorrow, the land snail could very well challenge us to and beat us in a race. At no point in our lives can we think with utmost certainty that things will stay the way they are or that the road is going to be smooth from then on out. We could lose a leg, our sight, a prized possession, or even our lives in less than a second. Even if only in our subconscious, we are aware of this very fact of life’s volatileness. That is why we seem to desire to move as quickly as possible through one step to get to the next.

It’s arguably why a couple of us freshmen got frustrated the very first time they tried to gain admission into this prestigious university and were not quite successful. Needless to say, seeing your friends and people you started out with make that big step and get ahead of you brings to the fore, feelings of pain, restlessness and at times, regret for perhaps not giving our all the first time around. So we burnt the midnight candle, prayed, gave our all and now we are here.

However, we fail to realize that the cycle has once again repeated itself for just as at one time we were left behind, we have left a few of our friends behind. Now that it’s all good for us for now, we tend to forget the anguish and loneliness we once felt and which those friends of ours now feel, however, well they try to mask it. We forget that in those ‘dark’ moments, we had someone there to hold us steady and keep us going. And even if we were not privileged to, it would have made the wait a tad less agonizing for us if we had just one person, anyone, care enough to call and say, ‘How’s it going, mate?’. It’s simply not enough that we are here; we must help keep hope alive in the hearts of those that aren’t.

There are a plethora of reasons why we tend to forget our friends. Some truly do forget, and I hope this serves as a reminder to them. Some feel uneasy and frankly sad that they got the better lot and so think it would be better not to keep in touch and thus remind them of what would have been. Whilst your sadness does suggest that your friendship is true, you must look past your discomfort to the need of that friend whose setback weighs so greatly on you. Sadly though, there are a few others who think themselves better than those friends they left behind. Owing to their momentary success, without even any certainty of the continuity of said success, they relegate their once best buddies to the bottom of the intellectual ladder they have formed in their minds.

Edison, Mozart, da Vinci are well known but if we could look, really look, deep into each and every person we meet, I believe we would find a genius lurking in the shadows waiting to be let out. Sometimes, the genius in people never sees the light of day because they had no one to shine some light on their path, to be the light, and push them forward. I do not write this just to remind you of your old friends who are held back for some reason but also to entreat us to be true friends and reliable companions. Man is essentially a social being, we need each other. At some point in our lives we will need someone so let’s adopt the golden rule. Let’s truly become men and women of character and learning.

Obinna Amaji