When it comes to making agreements, I always try to get the littlest details. A lot of humans know how to turn tables at a snap of the finger and more often than not, when such people are making agreements, they don't use direct words that could incriminate them. They say things like "most likely", "more or less", "something like that", etc. Avoid making agreements with these sets of people.
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The youth meeting after church service was one meeting I always avoided with all my might. Once the final announcement was made, I would scurry away like a mouse that was being pursued by a cat. Maybe I was fleeing from responsibilities or maybe I didn't just like the faces of the people chairing the meeting. Either way, I didn't like attending the meetings .
This news soon got to my mom and she made it a point of duty to ensure I attended the meetings after service. I was very reluctant at first but I thought to myself;
"What could possibly go wrong? I'd just sit at the back till the meeting is over".
Now, the thing with youth meetings is that everyone wants to sit at the back. On the assigned Sunday, by the time I made it to the meeting, the only available seats were in front. With my shoulders held high and my chin up, I walked to the front and sat there. Luckily, I saw two friends of mine and so we were just chatting away. I noticed a lady looking towards our direction from time to time; were we making a lot of noise? Not exactly. Everything was going smoothly and I thought
"Youth meetings aren't so bad afterall".
This thought soon faded when the three of us (two of my friends and myself) alongside three other youths were called on stage. I was wondering why we were called out. I run away from youth meetings all my life and the very first day I decide to return, I'm called on stage.
I walked up the stage and from there, I could see everyone's face clearly. Some people were smiling, some frowning and some agitated. I was brought back from my little trance when the chairlady said;
"And wongi would be occupying the position of the youth secretary".
Wait what? What were the criteria for choosing secretaries? My handwriting looked pretty ugly to me, I barely attended meetings and when I did, I never listened. It wasn't adding up. My thoughts.
"Do you agree to be our youth secretary? " the chairlady asked.
As if I had a choice
I looked around the hall and by the corner was my mom glaring at me with the eyes that said. "you dare not turn down this offer".
I turned to the chairlady and with gritted teeths I said "yes, I agree". Everyone clapped after my affirmation but I was in a dilemma as I agreed to do something that I knew nothing about. The only thing I knew about secretaries was that they had a lot of responsibilities. They had to have certain abilities which seemed impossible and very ridiculous to me at the time.
I was supposed to get guidance from my predecessor but the outgoing youth secretary was a rival of mine. This lady disliked me for no particular reason and so you can imagine how the "guidance" went. All she said to me was
"So it's you that has taken my position. Congrats. You're going to figure it out" . And that was it.
Soon enough, the once nonchalant and indifferent youth who always wanted to sit at the back, was now sitting in front, reading minutes and addressing fellow people. Everything was a mess in the beginning, but within months, I adjusted properly into my new role.
Till this day, I don't know how my name got on that list. Was it a form of punishment for talking during the meeting? Or did they just write my name in the list so that I would get more engaged in youth activities. All the same, I learnt a whole lot during my years as a youth secretary and as such, I like to call the situation that happened that day, "the agreement of love". One good thing I got from "my agreement of love" was the liberty to travel to other states for youth conferences like an elite, without paying a dime. The agreement wasn't so bad after all.
With love, wongi ✨