About eight years ago... I got a surprise gift that turned out to be a perfect gift I've ever received.
As the first child of my parents, I can't give a specific number of gifts I've received from both family and friends. Even though my younger sister's name is Gift, I can't deny the fact that I'm the who received the most gifts among my dad's children.
I remember getting gifts from neighbors and guests to share among my younger ones as the eldest child, those may not count as gifts but they made me smile and gifts are given for good feelings, so I've always though.
Amongst all the gifts I've received, there's this one gift I can't seem to forget and the fact that I got it from the most random person makes it even more special for me.
Fast forward to some months before my birthday eight years...
I was still in high school taking my studies serious but never my punctuality. I never had my way around school when I default but somehow every day of those months, I would go to school late and face punishment that sometimes cost me my first class of that day. It became fun and then a habit as I could escape some classes that would stress my brain (I hated mathematics classes back then).
Our place to school was about 20 minutes walk, I preferred walking to taking transport vehicles available to save cost for my break time expenses. And that was how I continued being a late goer to school everyday of those months. I remember a young man working at a hotel close to our home asking and advising me to stop going late to school.
I was never a stubborn little girl back then but somehow I couldn't take his advice, my lateness habit continued and I didn't feel like I was only affecting myself in the wrong way.
Fast forward to my birthday July 24th...
I wasn't expecting a gift as it was a tradition my family unintentionally observed for a while back then, we would just wish each other on our birthdays and eat nice meals then we call it a special day. That particular birthday which was doomed to end that way for me added another activity.
I got a call from outside and was told that my friend was asking after me, I went out wondering who my friend could be because I remember not keeping much friends while growing up in that area. It turned out to be the stranger who advised me on my punctuality to school.
We greeted each other, he smiled at me and placed a beautiful tiny bag in my hands with a birthday wish...
This isn't the gift but it's a wrist watch from my collection
I opened it to see a very pretty wrist watch and I went like "Wow, for me?" and he was like "I thought you needed a real time to keep to time" 😂 I made a resolution right there to always go to school early.
That gift remained with me for another two years and I can say proudly that it helped me keep to time for a long while and keeping to time became a habit for me. Who would have thought that I would be what I am now in regards to punctuality? A random person with the perfect gift changed me.
