We learn daily and that's one mode of survival and development for humans. I have not mingled with a lot of people, but every opportunity I get, I ensure I learn something new. I have traveled to different places and settled with people of different cultures and tribes and they all respond to certain situations differently. I know I'm an introvert , and I tend to learn from people more than I learn from my mistakes, so I use every given opportunity. The lesson I'm about to share happened with a stranger I met one fateful day when I went to get something to eat for dinner.
I don't know this stranger's name, He only engaged me in a conversation shortly after I sat to get some food. I met him there eating one local meal cooked in the northern Nigeria known as Masa and he had just a few of it on his plate. He told me he was from the western part of the country and had traveled all the way from his state in search of a greener pasture. At that time he was applying for the Nigeria army and he assumed I was one because of my body structure.
What became a lesson for me in everything he said was the kind of lifestyle he lives. I know myself to be an extravagant spender at that time, I believed in eating whatever my heart desired, fasting was far from one of the things i do because I couldn't afford to make myself uncomfortable. but this young guy, probably younger than I was, was disciplined in every aspect, he learned to eat food he couldn't have eaten, spend less , and fast just to ensure this dream of his come true. While he told me of the things he had endured for his dream, it made me reflect on mine, how I've destroyed my strategies because I couldn't endure to beat my body or subject it against its wants.
I had to rethink, if someone younger than I was, was able to go that length for his dream, then it means I've been a joker all along. I held my take away pack while loads of thoughts flooded through my mind and it became the start of my disciplined lifestyle. I gave it a thought and felt I needed to cut some things off for my dream, if indeed I needed to be great in life. Because of what I learned from our conversation with the guy, I paid for his food without him knowing and walked away, but I kept that lesson close to my heart ever since.