This isn’t just a story but also a prompt.
In The quaint town of Efuru along the borders of Benin Republic lived a family of four. The Adebowales.
Their journey through life hadn’t been a smooth one but they still believed in Education and they made sure to provide their children with the best education even if it costs all of their earnings.
Demi Adebowale is the firstborn of the Adebowale’s family and his family had high expectations of him – pass the jamb examination, go to the university, be successful, and repay them, then his younger brother would follow in those footsteps.
That was the plan, this wasn’t just a plan but also a constant reminder and motivation that they needed to
make as much money as they could to afford the children’s education.
Fate played a dirty game with them, Demi had taken the West African Examination 4 times and he still couldn’t pass it. Shame, and regrets that started to bear hatred started to fill the hearts of Elisha and Fiyin Adebowale.
They considered Demi an ingrate, if he couldn’t think of any reason to pass the examinations, was he so wicked to forget how hard they laboured to make ends meet?
Feranmi was their only consolation, he already passed his WAEC and gained admission to study
engineering at the University of Ibadan. He could still make their dream happen as he was going
with the plan.
Demi became forgotten, he became the ‘s’ in “Island”. Forgotten and useless.
“I curse the day I was born”. Demi said as he sat in the corner of the room looking lost and
depressed.
He surfed the internet severally thinking of ways to own a talent forgetting that we
cannot learn talents but can learn skills ” he wanted a blockbuster, a breakthrough, a public
announcement but how can a secondary school dropout achieve this.
He couldn’t even muster the courage to tell his parents how hard he prepared for these exams and how little he remembered.
Little did he know, his inability to pass his WAec wasn’t a peg on his life but a blessing in
disguise. He recently discovered how skilled he was with needles and he would sew up the balls
they played on the field if they had holes in them and how quick he was in detecting the invisible
holes that caused tires to flatten out.
He started helping out the vulcanizer in the area and got stipends. It was indeed a beautiful talent.
Fate indeed has different games at hand, it wasn’t such a big deal until he met Mr Ash who came to
fix his tire and saw how Demi figured out the punched hole and patched it up swiftly in minutes.
This stood out for Mr Ash he was greatly impressed and asked him to come by his company which
was coincidentally one that makes tires.
Demi did really well in the company and he was sent to the United States to learn more and
improve his talent so it could be way better than it already is.
“If I was in school struggling, this might not have been possible I never even knew I was this talented until I became a relegate in my family and I wanted to be useful and at least pay my parents back for all their toils,” said Demi to himself.
His parents had smiles planted on their faces as they saw how much growth had happened to Demi and how successful he was now.
Life is never going to get easier, we just have to toughen up and face whatever challenges that
come around, who knows?
These problems we face could be blessings in disguise.
