Alison was a very good friend of mine in primary school. She had such a great passion for football but her parents saw it as a decision of immaturity and said when she was older, her IQ would be full of life and smart enough to tell her the best career. Alison sore hated this motive because it was obvious she was such a good sporter.
At the age of 14, Alison still made up her mind that her parents must be in full support of her dreams. She wakes up to them and informs them of her ambition but to no avail. She got very depressed at the age of 15 because all her family members felt that she was just a waste of an ovary on her mother's side. She had poor grades in school which caught the attention of her teacher. After the teacher got to know about her predicament, the teacher vowed to confront the parents with laws in the constitution concerning "The Right of a Nigerian Child."
One of the rights was "right to make decisions under the parent's supervision."
Well, the phrase, "... under the parent's supervision" was so difficult that I wish I could take the case to the supreme court (highest court in Nigeria). The teacher argued heaven and hell and the sour orange never changed its taste. The teacher left Alison's house vowing not to have anything to do with parents who don't have the choices/dreams of their child at heart.
Alison was not going to stop. Her subject combination for the certificate exams was a combination of science subjects and other compulsory subjects. I really felt a scratch in my heart for Alison's poor state. She summoned courage and said to their parents one day, "When I am done being your medical doctor, I am gonna be my footballer!" This statement resulted in a downpour of brimstone on her father's roof. The ground was shaking already at the raucous ranting of her parents. She did not even sacrifice half an ear for their seemingly comedy session.
Months become years and Alison's parents got to know from a reliable source that Alison had been a handball captain and football captain for her college. This made her parents extra mad and they vowed that she will be the one to pay her fees for such embarrassment. Did I just say embarrassment? Yes! Her parents saw sports to be a thing of shame for a father/mother old enough to have grandchildren, so, the duo felt that being a doctor would add some sauce to their name. Yes! It was going to add a lot to them but they never looked at the bigger picture of having a world-class football star as their blood child. No! They never saw it that way, rather, they felt it was a waste of time and resources. Alison sold notepads to complete her education. Her parents noticed she was about to complete her final year and sent a huge amount of money to her. They were already getting proud of her.
She was the best graduating student in that year and her parents were already sitting on stars with crossed legs. After this, she got recruited into a football team and handed over her certificate to her parents. The parents were so displeased and disowned her completely for her action/inaction. To cut the long story short, she is currently the captain of my country's football club and she'll be playing in the upcoming African women's cup. Her name isn't Alison actually, I only chose this name for some certain reasons.
In a nutshell, the rejection we face because of our dreams are the true motivations to keep pushing till we get there. Alison's parents later came to plead for forgiveness and now her parents are enjoying her terrific source of wealth. Now, I bet that with this article, you have the perfect recipe to be whatever you want. Do have a beautiful day!
