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22.05.2017 Feature Article

I Want To Be A Soldier

I Want To Be A Soldier
22.05.2017 LISTEN

While in one of the basic schools with my colleagues, I noticed a list of the compilation of their last term's exams results pasted on one of the classroom doors.

I was impressed because the overall best was a female so I called out her name to know who she was and to tell her CONGRATS. I didn't really know why but I felt the urge to give some 'coins' to her, maybe as a form of motivating her but I think it was something more, soI heeded. However, as I was about leaving the class, the Holy Spirit whispered to me; what about the last? I was like: what? The last?

Nonetheless, I went back to the door and called out the last person's name, he was a boy. The whole class started laughing, pitifully, the teacher too. Nobody responded. I called out again. The teacher then shouted: Won't you respond. A timid looking boy, showed himself up. I was reaching out into my pocket to give him some 'coins' as well and to encourage him to learn harder and perform better; however, I was instructed to stop.

I then asked the first placed girl the usual question: what do you want to be in the future, to which she proudly responded, a Doctor. I threw the same question back at my friend, the last placed boy. After shying away for a couple of seconds, surprisingly, he proudly responded (like a soldierman), soldier man. And guess what, the whole class burst into laughter again, the teacher too.To be frank, I was boiling within.

Well, I spent some few minutes talking to the entire class, but indirectly, I was talking to this timid little boy. After the talk, the Holy Spirit again instructed me to give my pen to this aspiring soldierman, which I did after saying few words to him.

What has my giving some 'coins' and pen to some pupils you might not even meet your entire life got to do with you? Well, it has everything to do with you!

We live in a society where the firsts are celebrated and the lasts are left to rot! The firsts we hail; the lasts? We laugh at them! We mock their dreams as if it's a crime for anybody to have a dream, a dream of a better future, a dream of improving.

Nobody cares about the last! No one cares to know what contributed to their failures! No man is interested in lending them a hand! No woman is ready to tell them being last today is not a licence to becoming last tomorrow and that being last in school is not an endorsement of becoming last in life.

So what do we do? We hail the best at the expense of the lasts and we leave the not too goods to rot and sometimes, decay. We treat their dreams with disdain and suffocate them with timidity, inferiority complex, lack of self-confidence, low self-esteem and negativities. Sometimes, teachers who should know better and be their greatest inspirers and mentors are the greatest culprits. Parents who should stand by these kids no matter what, are the first to run away from them and foolishly (excuse my language) compare them ignorantly to others. I know every parent want genius for a child but they always forget that each child has her own abilities, uniqueness and they all have their pace. Hmmm. Elder siblings from whom they should find solace rather laughed at them for being somehow deficient. As for their colleagues, they ostracized them, leaving these potentially capable kids to rot alone.

Pitifully, the society which has no clue is noble enough to offer an ‘accommodation’ for every child. So, that last or not too good child, if not well mentored, is accommodated in the bad side of the society. They become indifferent and wayward and turn to drugs, guns, weeds, prostitution bad companies, and all sorts of crimes and vices, because with these, they also have a voice, with these they can express their dreams of becoming 'soldiermen and women' without being laughed hysterically at.

Regardless of the numerous examples etched down for us by history, we continue to forget this fact that, the 'firsts' can indeed become doctors but sometimes, very bad ones, and that the lasts, can finally realize their dreams of becoming a soldier and the best ones at that. We forget that sometimes, the firsts end up becoming soldiermen and the lasts strive beyond the odds to become doctors. We often forget that the last placed in school sometimes become the first and best in life; and that the firsts in school sometimes become the lasts and the worst in life. Such a great irony we mostly turn our blind eyes to maybe, because it makes us laugh at the wrong side of our mouths when posterity later turns the tables of destiny.

What type of teacher are you? What type of parent, leader, big sister, big brother, pastor, colleague, and friend are you? Be that man, be that woman, be that one person who will reach out to the ‘lasts’ in the society. Instead of leaving them to rot, let's give them a reason to blossom. As said by someone, “children are like clays, who they will become depends on the hands that are moulding them.”

Inasmuch as we should inspire the firsts to do better we must also support the lasts to get better. GIVE OUT YOUR 'PEN'TOTHAT LAST CHILD!

Sharing this message with your friends could be the 'pen' you're giving to that last child.

Do remember: There's a Hero in you; unleash it!

The author of this article is Elorm Hermann. Elorm is the author of Unleashing the Hero in You. You can reach him via [email protected] or +233249177007.

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