"Time is money", I grew up hearing this statement almost every day. "Time determines how far you go in life, it is a determinant of a great future." These are the words of my father when I started making decisions in life myself. I've always known that good timing can take you places in life while bad timing can be the end of one's journey in life. Growing up with this mentality has helped me well enough to know the importance of time and to maximize every opportunity it brings my way.
Sometimes I do wonder what happened to their timing when I see people doing things they should have done earlier. I know and understand quite well that sometimes in life, things don't go as planned but good timing saves one from unnecessary stress and shame. I have an opportunity to discuss with a lady whom I have known over the years but till now nothing seems to have changed.
She is the type that procrastinates a lot, she believes she still has a lot of time ahead to do whatever it is she wants to do unknown to her that time is no one's friend. Her parents tried their best for her to finish her secondary school at an early age. When it was time for her to write her jamb(joint admission matriculation board) examination, she told her parent she wasn't ready as she was just sixteen years of age then.
According to her, she claimed to be young for the examination. When she said this, I opened my mouth wide in exclamation as I wasn't expecting that, that forced words out of my mouth. " too young at age sixteen"? I asked in surprise, she looked at me in affirmation. At that point, I felt sorry for her because the look on her face told it all that she regretted making such a decision. "what age did you think it was right at that time?", I asked again.
"At that time I was thinking at age eighteen or twenty, I should be ready to further my education in a higher institution but fate played another game entirely on me". She replied with tears almost rushing out of her eyes, "I should have thought twice right?". She asked me, I didn't know what to reply to her with other than to just stare at her. "Youthful exuberance was the reason for all the time I wasted thinking I was too young to proceed with my education".
"Were you able to gain an admission when you clocked eighteen years of age?" I asked out of curiosity. I was able to figure out the answer myself even before she replied with her facial expression. " After lots of persuasion from my parents, I tried writing jamb when I clocked eighteen years but I wasn't able to make the cut-off mark needed for the course I wanted to go for in the higher institution", she replied. "What course were you aspiring for?" that was my next question but I think brought back old memories with that question.
It took a while before she gave me a reply and I understood that she was going through pain as the memories looked like new. "I wanted to go for law" she finally said. "That's awesome!" I said with a bright smile, tapping her left hand to cheer her up, she gave me a fainted smile but I'm glad she smiled. "I couldn't read law till today because I couldn't make the cut-off marks needed after trying jamb 7 times neither do I want to change the course. I was obstinate about it not knowing time wasn't on my side".
Tears rolled down her eyes immediately after she said that at that point, I wished I could erase the bad memories and give her a fresh start to a new life but it was impossible. "My parents got tired after the seventh attempt, at that time, my younger sister was done with secondary school and already in year 2 at the university", she continued. I exclaimed with ha! because I was imagining how badly she must have felt when things didn't work out the way she had earlier planned.
"After working for those years spent at home, I paid for my 8th jamb myself which later got me into the college of education where I read social studies/CRS". "My dream of becoming a lawyer was dashed because of mismanagement of time and opportunities". She concluded by holding my hands and looking into my eyes saying, "Time waits for no one, do all you have to do on time, and do not procrastinate, anything worth doing is worth doing well, I repeat do not let any time go without making good use of it".
That day, I learned that time is a very important factor in human life. Once one misses the correct timing in life, retracing back one step to get it right will be difficult.
Thanks for your time and your comments will be appreciated.