After Senior High School, I visited my aunt on my mom’s orders. “I’m not sure if it’s me that did not understand the meaning of “visit” but that visit had me staying for more than three months. Basically, my mom was just tired of me. She had become a best friend more than a mother and I was growing familiar enough around her not to even listen to her anymore. I was growing stubborn and stubborn each day and as the last born I really had no iota of any sense of responsibility.
I mean you’d need 300 words to explain to me why I needed to do the dishes, sweep, do the laundry….you can name them. I don’t even want to talk about cooking because the kitchen and I were enemies. My Mom knew if I found out that visit was not a visit, I wouldn’t have gone with her so you know what she did? We went as visitors indeed and then she had an “emergency call” that made her leave me there.
“This is for you and Junior“ My aunt would normally say anytime she handed over a glass of juice.
I would then just reject it out of anger because sharing it with my cousin would mean getting a half empty glass of juice. In my mother’s house, I didn’t have to share anything. If I had to share then it sure had to be my leftovers, I didn’t mind giving them out to whoever.This went on for a while until my aunty could not take it anymore. Already, I wasn’t sharing anything of mine in that house, whether food or anything. The annoying part was that I was so quick to give my leftovers out.
My aunty gave me the scolding of my life but I really didn’t even see anything wrong with what I was doing. She realized scolding was not a good way to correct a stubborn kid. The next day, she handed me the glass of juice and asked me to pour half of it into another glass for my cousin. I did that with so much anger, meaning that strategy also wasn’t going to work. I kept on giving attitude for a while( you know girls) and then one particular day my aunty decided to allow me pour my own drink. Guess what? I poured it half full and then she asked me why?
I explained that I wouldn’t really be able to drink a full glass of juice. Then, she asked me what’s wrong with her giving me a full glass of juice and asking me to pour half for my cousin? after all I would still have a half full glass like I want. At that point, I realized sharing the juice with my cousin could make my glass half empty or half full but it all depended on me and from what perspective I was seeing things.That was when I got the clear picture.
I also got to learn that it’s not cool to give your leftovers to a person when you could have just shared in the beginning. It also helped understand that life has so many lenses and it’s up to you to choose which lens you want to see through.
All images are mine
