In my junior secondary school days, I was a master procrastinator to the core. You know that there are procrastinators and there are master procrastinators, I will say I have a master's degree in procrastination and this affected me negatively in a lot of aspects of my life. I would wait until the last minute to do everything, including getting dressed for school, completing assignments, and studying for exams. This attitude has become a bad habit in my life and this has gotten me into a lot of trouble, but the event that finally broke me free from procrastination was when my bus fare was stolen. Trust me, since then it has set me free from it. I can't forget that memory and I will be sharing it with you guys today.
Back then, our bus fare and school fees were always paid separately in a bid to avoid some unnecessary arguments and issues that always spring up among students. My mom who is always in charge of sponsoring me to school since I lost my dad had already paid my school fees as she always does before the term started, but it happens that on this particular occasion, she forgot about the bus fare as that will be. On a normal occasion, she always paid both the school fees and the bus fare together at once but this time, she made a mistake.
She gave me ₦5000 the next week to pay to the bursar as the bursar is always in charge of collecting the bus fare. She gave it to me on Tuesday, but I completely forgot about it once I saw the school gate. I only remembered when I checked my bag after school. The next day, I remembered and planned to pay, but as the force of procrastination wanted to play, I got distracted by a conversation with my classmates about my trip to the village during the summer. I told myself, "Tomorrow."
I believe many of us will understand that feeling when you keep telling yourself tomorrow you will do something. The next day as it came, I was already set on paying at break time, but then I got into a heated debate with my classmates about whether Messi or Ronaldo was the better football player. I would do anything to defend my GOAT, Messi as he is my favourite player from onset. (I've even gotten into fights because of him). We argued from break until the school closed, and we even argued on the school bus.
I only remembered my bus fare when I was walking home after I got off the school bus. The next day, Friday, I planned to pay after sports. So after scoring two goals during our match against JSS3, I went to check my bag for the money, but it wasn't there. At first, I thought I was dreaming, I checked everywhere—my bag, my books, under my shoes everywhere I knew I could check —but it was nowhere to be found. I started panicking and asked my classmates if they had seen it.
They all said no. At that particular time, I felt like the earth should open up and swallow me up. A lot of thought was just coming through my mind. I told Mr. Peter, our class teacher, and he threatened all of us (me included) with 50 strokes of the cane if we didn't tell him who had stolen my money on Monday. I managed to dodge my mom's questions about the bus fare receipt, and I went to school on Monday with jeans under my uniform and a faint hope that someone would come forward with my money. When I went to school that morning, I opened my math textbook to do my assignment, and lo and behold, my ₦5000 was staring back at me! I started screaming "I found it!" repeatedly, like Archimedes with eureka.
My classmates sighed with relief, and those whose hearts I had put in tension gave me scornful looks. Mr. Peter still gave me 20 strokes of the cane and an earful of scolding for my procrastination and carelessness, but I was still grateful to have found the money.
I learned a valuable lesson that day: procrastination can be costly in more ways than one. If I had paid my bus fare on time, I wouldn't have lost my money or been so embarrassed. I'm still a procrastinator sometimes, but I'm much better about it now. And I always keep my money in a safe place!