Everyone forgets, it’s a natural thing and at one point or the other, you’d find yourself going through something like that. But then, for many of us, the things we forget can affect us in a number of ways, even going as far as destroying the relationships that we’ve built. I’ve seen cases where even failing to wish someone a happy birthday, or not posting them on your status was enough grounds for dissolution of the relationship.
For some people, there are just some things that you simply don’t forget. It’s cannon and there are no two ways about it. If you forget such a major thing about me, what then is the proof that you ever really liked me to begin with? That’s how crazy these things can be. But then, what can we do? The human mind is still as mysterious as ever and even the things that are most important to us tend to be forgotten once in a while.
A friend once told me about how shortly after he bought a car for the first time, he frequently forgot it. Many times he would leave home and when he’s in the bus he would remember that he owns a car. Other times, he would forget it at work and have to walk back just to get it back. It’s crazy, but it happens a lot. When you’re used to a certain lifestyle, adjusting can be a bit difficult.
For me, I also have my experience of forgetting and this one almost landed me in a carry-over course. During my ND2, we had a course Citizenship Education; it was a course that focused on all the affairs of the country, both current and past. One of those courses that involves a lot of names, and dates of people long departed from Mother Earth. It wasn’t an easy course, but we managed to make do. Also, the lecturer was a strict man. While his classes were always lively, he was known to be really strict and he could fail a student simply for failing to do something he ordered. That was how bad it was.
So, that semester, he gave us an assignment. Each student had a separate one where they talked about a major historical event that happened in Nigeria. Mine had to do with the overthrowing of the Sani Abacha’s government, or something like that. Either way, I prepared for the speech, because we were going to defend it. He even demanded that we printed out our work and spiral bound it. The whole nine yards! I had already done mine, and was learning it, however, just before I could print it out, or even copy the file to my phone, the laptop packed up.
It wasn’t mine, I didn’t have a laptop then, so I had to borrow my roommate’s laptop. The laptop developed a minor fault which was easily fixed when I gave it to an engineer. However, after that, I still had to charge it before I could fully use it again. Here’s where it all went weird though; for some reason, I forgot that I was yet to print out the documents. I just thought I had it all ready, all that was left was for me to pick it and submit it on the day of the defense.
It was on the day that we were supposed to submit it that I realized my folly. I didn’t have a printout or even a spine, and the lecturer was a stickler for rules. If he said the defense was to start by 7:00, then those who came by 7:05 would not be allowed in. Yet, I had to take the risk. That morning, I copied the file into my phone and took it to the cyber café close to the school.
You’d be surprised at how many people actually visit a café early in the morning. Here’s a spoiler; a lot! There were many students there already who were there for one thing or another, but eventually got to my turn. I printed the papers out and bound it. I even saw some students like me who had not done theirs. From there, I rushed to the man’s office but I was over 30 minutes late. That was too late, by then, more than half the class had already done. He didn’t waste time because no student spoke for more than two minutes.
Still, there were many of us outside, we weren’t allowed to go inside because we were too late. We were already terrified that we wouldn’t defend the assignment and that was an automatic failure because it was our CA and had over 20 marks alone.
But then, luck shone on me that day. There was an emergency and he was called by the Rector with immediate effect. This meant that he had to drop what he was doing and go due to the nature of the summons. He instructed the course rep to count everyone that was left, excluding those of us who came late. As far as he was concerned, we had failed the CA.
Anyway, I didn’t let that deter me. While the course rep was giving out numbers, I managed to sneak in and I got a number. That way, I was among those counted. The defense was continued after school hours that day and I was the first to be there. I did my defense and submitted the printout. Thankfully, it was over without a hitch.
That was how being forgetful almost made me have a carry-over but I managed to dodge that bullet. It taught me a great lesson though, always check. When I have a project, from time to time I check through them to make sure that they’re in order, even though I’m done with them. So far I’m yet to submit them, I’ll keep going through them. This has helped me a lot when it comes to work, because it saves me from all those last minute running around.
I’ve had a number of forgetful episodes since then, but so far, I don’t think any of them have topped this. I hope I don’t get any.
