Dominion Okon @grandmaster

I attended a burial for a man who was well known and highly respected. He had built a good life for himself and his family, making sure his children had enough even after he was gone. Before he passed away, he divided his properties among his children, ensuring they had a secure future. Among his children, two were heavily into smoking, yet he still gave them a house to live in. It was a sign that, despite their habits, he still cared for them and wanted them to have a place to call home.

When we arrived at the event, the atmosphere was quiet and dull. People sat around, some lost in thought, others engaged in conversations. It took a while before things became lively. As time passed, music started playing, people began talking more, and the gathering turned into what one would expect at the burial of such a great man. Even though it was a sad occasion, the presence of friends, family, and well-wishers brought some liveliness to the event.

But what shocked me the most was what happened when it was time to share food. One of the deceased man's sons, who had been given a house, was fighting aggressively for food. It was embarrassing to see someone from such a wealthy background struggling over a meal. His father had worked hard, made money, and provided well for him, yet he had allowed his life to crumble because of smoking. He had inherited property, but his actions showed that he had not inherited wisdom.

It was painful to watch how he had ruined himself. A man whose father had left him enough to live comfortably was now behaving like someone who had nothing. Smoking had clouded his judgment, weakened his sense of dignity, and turned him into a person who couldn't even manage himself. No matter what is given to a person, if they lack discipline and self-control, they can still lose everything.

There is this coursemate that I have, that rarely comes to classes, he just doesn't feel like. I can't say he is my friend, cos he is not, he is just someone I like to playfully molest and harass for missing classes, done intentionally to get the guy serious about attending classes. In a course that the lecturer is almost rounding out, the guy doesn't have even a page of note on the course, doesn't even have an idea of what is going on in the department as a whole.

I don't know why I feel bothered about the guy's lifestyle, he lives alone, and not far from school, I guess he has some unserious fellows as neighbors, distracting him. I tried to let this guy know that this kind of life will amount to nothing, as we have a hefty examination waiting ahead. The guy will always snap my notes whenever he struggles to come to school, but he never copies them. This is actually someone I'm older than, I actually feel very bad for him, it's not gonna end well.

We wrote a test last week, the lecturer separated the unserious students that hasn't been coming to classes, and kept them far away to write on their own, you guessed right, the guy was among the unserious ones, kept aside to write separately. I find it funny that the guy wanted to sit close to me, so that he will copy from me, but the lecturer ruined his plans. The guy kept calling unto me from the distance, but there is no way I was gonna help him out in such a situation, I didn't want to risk being kicked out of the test.

Another lecturer that is taking us on another course, came in there and took a picture of the list of the unserious students using his phone. This got the guy extremely terrified, somehow I'm sure he knows that he is the one that brought the chaos on himself. He failed the test, and currently doesn't still have confident that he has what it takes, to tackle even half of the forthcoming examination questions, and now a lecturer has noted him for being unserious.

We had a group presentation yesterday, for the first since I entered the university. I never knew how it's like to do a presentation until yesterday. But before then, working as a group wasn't easy at all, infact I can't say we worked as a group, because I'm the only one that did the presentation, and printed it with my own money, just because I don't want to lose 30 marks, the other six group members were so unserious.

We were given a topic and a group leader was appointed for over three weeks, yet nothing was done. The group leader never for once gathered us to discuss how we'll go about it, until I had to step up and assume the role. I created a WhatsApp group and added all six of them, the appointed group leader refused to lead, saying we will all be doomed if he leads, and no one else was willing to be the guy to lead.

They are very unserious students that rarely come to class, they were ready to fail and I happened to be in the same group with them, 30 marks is too much to lose, so I fully took on the role. Told them to do the work individually, and then send it for me, so I can join it together to become one work, none of them did it. I had to do everything by myself, even with the situation of not having stable electricity supply where I live, had to go for night classes just to use the school's electricity to do the work on my laptop.

I finished doing the work by 3pm yesterday, and the presentation was by 4pm, posted on the WhatsApp group that they should send money for the printing, some of them claimed not to have money, some of them ignore the message. I had to use my money to print it and spiral bind it, since we're submitting it to the lecturer. I thought of how to get my money back, with interest for my time, stress, browsing data, and everything.

I told them to pay for typing and printing, or I won't include their names in the presentation, and they all paid, without knowing what we're presenting. Time for the presentation came and everybody in a group must say what the group worked on, my group members who were not involved in any way couldn't say anything, but they wore much neater corporate dressing than mine. I worked hard even without the backup I was supposed to have, but it paid off, because I did well in the presentation and also earned myself some cash doing so.

Some hours to my birthday, and some memories that I haven't remembered for a while flashed in my mind, almost everything has changed across the years. I remember back then, as a kid, how I will be happy to visit my grandparents every year during holiday, to keep track of my height on the wall. And it was certainly one of the things that used to make me most happy during my visit there.

My grandmother will make me stand by the wall, and use something to mark my height, and this repeats itself every year when I visit at that particular spot, to check how much height I have grown. As a kid, special incidents like this was an appetizer and certainly a major activity on my holiday menu. I'm not sure that the kids of this generation are havig a good time, they all wanna skip childhood and transit to adult quickly.

We used to celebrate any achievement or thing, no matter how little, and cherished every moment dearly as if it was the last. my grandparents will gift me fowls, fancy glasses, and some other item that most kids too wouldn't see as something worth cherishing, but you need to see the joy and celebration on my face back then, that I actually own something, those moments were huge.

And then those times passed, everything looks different now, you don't get to see kids having fun in this way anymore, most of them behave like adults already and wouldn't fancy any of those activities or gifts, they prefer their android tablet. And for me, no intriguing activity of that kind anymore and also no gift has crossed my path in years, not even on my birthdays.

Everything changed completely, but I'm yet to see if tomorrow will be any different.

So yesterday, I came across one of my neighbors, who works for a medical related company, and his work is to supply medicines and medical devices to pharmacies, and then get paid for it. I'm not so sure when he started the work, but I'm sure it's not more than a month ago. He's not the only one working in that field, there are many others, lot of competition to be the guy with the highest sales, so you can imagine that efforts is needed.

I was walking back home from visiting a friend, when I came across this guy, sitting just outside his compound around 8 pm, I imagined he had just returned from work, because he still had his shirt and trousers on. He looked very angry, and was speaking to somebody on phone, about how he is going to beat up a female co-worker whenever he sets his eye on her. He even swore that if he doesn't beat up the female co-worker, let him die.

The person on the other end, tried to persuade him not to act the way he has planned to act already, but his mind was made up. According to him, the Lady insulted and abused him on phone, because of work related issues, might be related to sales or monetary related problem. People around him tried to tell him that the lady was wrong for abusing him, but it won't be accepted if he beats the lady. At this point, no one knew that the lady was married, not even him.

And then today, he came back home from work looking depressed, he refused to talk to anybody in the compound and locked himself inside his room. Only for news to spread that he went to work today and slapped the lady, which warranted the company to sack him immediately, and that's not all, the husband of the lady has promised to come for him. Out of anger, he has created himself too big problems, only one way out at the moment; learning the hard way

Something happened some nights ago in our compound, a fight between two roommates, Calista and Juliet. Juliet is the oldest, a 400 level student, while Calista is a 200 level student. They have been living together for some months, during which time I noticed that they don't get along very well, they are two different human beings who behave very differently. Juliet is a calm and straightforward person, while Calista will even trade her lectures for clubbing.

Though they are roommates, Calista's boyfriend do visit them in their room and stays till midnight, making Juliet very uncomfortable in the house, especially if she wants to change up or take her bath. Calista refused to heed to any advise or warning of letting her boyfriend visit her and stay that late till night, she will even insult Juliet in the process. Anything that Juliet objects that is not good, Calista will cease the opportunity to insult her.

There was a day I overheard Calista telling her friends that she will do anything she wants, and that Juliet can't do anything to her, and that even if she tries, she will fight her back. I laughed silently, knowing very well, that physically, Juliet will literally crush Calista like a bug. So many other incidents where Calista took advantage of Juliet's quietness and softness piled up till it was filled up some nights back. I always suspected that a physical fight is likely to happen between the two.

They use the same gas cylinder, and often contribute money equally to fill it. And Calista is a type of human being that baths hot water in the morning, afternoon and evening, she says she can't bath cold water. Juliet was not happy with it, she saw it as a waste of gas and tried to advise Calista to instead try and put the water under the sun. It was a complain that every human being jointly filling gas would do.

As usual, Calista replied with insults and dared Juliet to the face that she can't do anything about it. I'll say that her words provoked Juliet and there was a retaliation. Juliet got tired from all the piled up insults and landed Calista a slap, of which beatings followed after. They literally scattered everything inside their room, as Calista tried to fight back. This was around 11 pm and the neighbors came out to separate them, and see how it could be settled that night.

The two of them were so enraged that they still wanted to get back at each other and continue the fight, Calista knew she can't beat Juliet, but didn't want to feel like a weakling, so she refused to give up. Juliet that has always been known to be gentle and quiet was now looking violent and wild, all because she was pushed too much by her room mate. At least Calista learnt her lesson that Juliet isn't a weakling, she just doesn't like problems. We were outside till 2 am, trying to settle the issue, but it didn't work. They had to sleep in different rooms for that night. Calista has changed in a good way because of that incident, even though they were fined for fighting, but the fight had to come so somebody can learn.

There is this boy that was sent to a fenced round compound with a gate, and there was dog in that compound. The boy was sent there by the mother, on an errand to somebody. The boy entered the compound and met with the dog which displayed its initial reaction to strangers. The dog, as usual, wasn't pleased with the boy's presence, but the boy had to complete his errand mission.

The landlord of the house was outside there, and assured the boy to come in that the dog won't bite. And you know this belief that when you see a dog and you don't run, that it won't attack you, the boy applied the rule and walked further into the compound. The boy wasn't there to see the landlord, so the landlord sent for the person the boy came to see. Suddenly, the landlord had something urgent to attend to inside the house, so he went inside.

The boy was outside there alone, waiting for the tenant he came to see to come out, what took the landlord inside the house must have been an emergency, so he literally forgot the boy. Nobody really witnessed what happened after the landlord went inside, all they heard was the boy's shout, and when they surfaces outside, the dog had the boy's throat in its jaw's grip. The dog was very violent and aggressive, nobody knew why the dog attacked.

People gave suggestions that the boy might have touched items in the compound, ignoring the dog's bark, since the landlord said it won't bite. The boy couldn't talk, he was rushed to the hospital, but died after some days, a very tragic event. I don't know how the family will react and how the landlord will react, but I believe that if you must have a dog in a rented apartment, it should be chained or cage, short and simple. A rented house is bent to have plenty visitors, that's undisputed.

There's no way I'm walking into a compound that the dog is loose, even if the owner says I should come in, I won't oh, because even the owner doesn't know the mind of the dog, it can do anything at any time.

There is the particular lecturer that loves giving class work, which is to be done in a 20 leaves exercise book and submitted right there in the class. The book is to be used for all the class works he will give, and will serve as the continuous assessment at the end of the semester. And for this reason, no one dared to miss his class, I have never missed the class, of course you don't want a mark to pass you by, and so seriousness is vital.

The class work the lecturer gave, I couldn't finish the work on time, because of the limited time that was given, I had to submit like that and the result was very poor. It was our first time, and we learnt we had to be fast while getting the classwork done. I had to read and study ahead of what will be taught in the next class, so that I won't waste much time when the class work is given. That's to show that I was willing to make a big difference this time.

The next class came, and as usual, the lecturer gave us class work, and since I went there prepared, I didn't waste must time doing it. I finished early, and compared my work with my coursemate that sat close to me, I was sure that I was correct, to the extent I was even making corrections for my coursemate. As usual, the lecturer told the course rep to go round and collect all the exercise book. I closed my book and was ready to submit it.

The course rep got to where I was seated, and collected from the people that sat close to me, he suddenly got distracted when he was about to get my book, he turned to look at something, and by the time he turned back to me, he refused to collect my book, saying he has passed my seat already. I was shocked, I have never had any problem with the guy before, so I wondered why he did what he did. I called out to him again, and he refused to answer me.

I walked up to the front where he was handing over the books to the lecturer, but the lecturer returned me to my seat, refusing to collect my classwork. I was very angry why the course rep did such a thing to me. Immediately after the class, I confronted the course rep and asked why he did what he did, he said I should not be angry, that he didn't see me. I didn't believe him, someone that replied me is now denying not to have seen me.

I was still pained by what he did, and so I avoided him. Classwork was given again in the next class, I did it and made sure I submitted it this time. Surprisingly, after it was marked, and the course rep brought the book back to us, the lecturer had marked the previous classwork that I didn't submit, and graded me the full mark, together with the current work, something I didn't expect. I was very happy. Since everything was now fixed, I decided to let my beef with the course rep go, hopefully he won't repeat such again.

Few days ago, I took a taxi to somewhere to buy some items I was in need of, when I entered into the hands of some 419s. I've been hearing of how they operate, but that was my first encounter, everything I heard about them played out exactly the same. Being fully aware of the tactics, I followed them up in a very calm manner, they were frustrated in the end. I know they were not expecting it, but, it is what it is.

I came out to the junction to meet a taxi waiting for passengers, the driver asked if I was gonna board the taxi and I replied with a nod. There was one young lady at the back, and a guy at the front. Immediately I entered, another passenger, a guy entered after me, and the taxi moved. On our way, this people sparked up a conversation, I maintain the mood I always maintain while boarding a vehicle, and that is to be silent.

They were talking and laughing, and even tried to initiate me into the conversation, I refused to let a single word out of me. It wasn't long when the guy in front, started talking about how he is looking for where to change dollars into naira. A very popular tactics by this fraudsters, I knew the situation I was in, and decided to be calm and let everything play out. I pretended not to even hear what they were saying, and very busy with my phone.

I noticed how the driver was looking at me through the mirror, I'm sure they were pissed off already. They are rumored to be with charms, that will only work on you, when you reply to whatever they are saying. If I never believed it before, the guy that was talking about dollars has proven it to be true. When they couldn't get me to talk, even concerning the dollar matter, the taxi stopped, and the driver said he's not going my way again, and that I should go down.

I went down jejely, the driver looked at me and cursed me while zooming off, I laughed. Such a very popular method has been casted, they should better go and find a legal work to do. I escaped in a majestic manner.