It'll be an overstatement to say my life has been unfair to me as I have met people whose lives have been harmful. The difference between me and them is how I chose to live life regardless of it all.
During my higher institution days, I had a roommate for my first year, and to be fair, living with her wasn't rosy.
It was known that I love my privacy a lot. I am the kind of person that will be at home but no one will notice and because of that part of me, I was able to listen to people speak about me when they thought I wasn't home.
There was a day some of them were speaking and I heard them. They spoke words that were unfit to be heard from a human's mouth and my roommate joined them when she returned from school. They had all been shocked when my roommate decided to drop her bag inside so they could continue their talks...
That was when they knew I was indoors all this time.
They had expected me to question them but I ignored their wants and asked if they had seen the new movies people are crazy about on campus.
With that, they were left gasping, unsure if I had heard their conversation or not. But I have heard things worse than that still, I haven't changed my ways of treating people with kindness, respect, and love.
Source
There was also this time my roommate planned my death. Oh, she did and that was all because she and the people in my hostel and three hostels from mine were taken to a maze-like house to be dealt with because someone in our hostel celebrated her birthday.
These people are notorious and the ladies among them were like men. They smoke weed like they own the farm and they are crazy people who believe anyone who celebrates his or her birthday shouldn't celebrate in peace but in pain.
I had not been home when my roommate and others were taken to those people's place. I left the hostel that morning to submit an assignment in school and went to work later. When I got home, all I heard were cries. Many of my hostel's mates were hospitalized and my roommate saw it fit to make sure I feel the same pain they all did.
She must have gone through my document to find my date of birth since I don't celebrate my birthday. And, she had met with those people and told them about it but they were not the only ones that heard from my roommate.
She went to another gang and told them too as she knows the gang's way of celebrating people is by choking them with water.
How Great!!!
But, I wasn't caught by any of them.
And, it was simple. The name she gave to those people wasn't a name people around know me as. Surely, she told them Balikis but I had a nickname around people called me. Many of them don't know my real name.
As fate would have it, I was coming back from work very late one day, I was exhausted, and my body yearned for food. Every cell in my body screamed;
"Go home".
But my spirit told me,
"You need to get food, you know your health status."
I don't like being reminded of that so I went with my spiritual talks instead and when I got to the place where I was to get something to take home, my ear heard something from some guys;
"Her birthday is just a few days, we need to get to her before the other people do". The first guy said and the other replied;
"Yes, we need to, I heard her name is Balikis, and her roommate doesn't like her to give out her details. Let's see how far she can run". They both smirked.
Oh geez, I am Balikis. My heart thumped and I rushed to my hostel. My roommate's question made me know what a vile being she is.
"Will you be home on the 25th?" She asked and I nodded.
I ate my food and went to sleep with a plan in mind. There was a voluntary camp that I needed to attend. I would have to go there a day before since I plan on attending anyways.
For the next two days, I smuggled out some of my clothes and kept them with a friend, and on the night of D-day, I was home but went out around 10 pm telling my roommate I will be back soon. But...
I didn't return. She called and I told her I will be home very soon and... She fell for it.
On D-day, I was at the camp enjoying my work there when a friend called, it was a distress call;
"Please, babe, don't come home. I just got to my hostel and saw your name everywhere. They are searching for you".
Well, I told her I knew and thanked her for her call. It was a good thing to know I have people who care for me.
I stayed away from my hostel for a few weeks and the day I got home, people were happy to know I wasn't home but my roommate wasn't.
A few days later, the boss of the first group saw me outside washing and he greeted me.
It turned out I had helped him some months back with some things and it was then my roommate came out and called my name.
They were all surprised to see me and the boss told his men that followed him to always have my back wherever they saw me.
That was how I was saved and that didn't change my behavior towards my roommate. That was the difference between us. I didn't pay evil with evil. I paid with kindness.