Hello Hivers
So on my way back from work this morning, I boarded a taxi heading home.
The cab man stopped at the bus stop to pick up another passenger who was a young man. The young man sat next to me.
After about 5 minutes of entering the vehicle, the young man brought out his phone from his pocket and put a call across to his uncle asking for financial assistance. His uncle declined stating that he is financially flat-out.
In anger, the young man hung up and started raining curses on his uncle. He narrated to us in the vehicle how his uncle was kidnapped simply because he was stingy. He went further to narrate how his wife was struck with Stroke which shouldn't have happened but because his uncle was stingy and didn't want to spend money by taking her to the hospital for proper treatment.
I didn't feel good about what this young man was saying because it sounded like he was the architect of all that he had narrated which had happened to his uncle. I politely asked him the reason why he was this furious and he said
My uncle is stingy. Anytime I ask him for money, he never agrees that he has any to give.
It dawned on me that this young man was feeling entitled to his uncle's money. I stylishly asked him if he contributed anything to his uncle's success. How can you feel that just because your relative is doing well, doesn't mean they must help you. If they choose to, then no problem.
This feeling of entitlement has made a lot of persons feel that they have every right to be helped by either a family member or a friend simply because they are in their lives. What baffled was how this young man was telling whoever cares to listen all the assets that his uncle has not minding who was listening.
He mentioned every single thing in his uncles possession.
A said his uncle has a duplex in lekki, Lagos state, fleet of expensive cars, he even said his uncle travels abroad almost every month. In my mind, I was wondering if this young man knows that with what is happening in the world now, one needs to be careful how he talks. What if a kidnapper was in the vehicle with us all? Wouldn't that be a clue for the kidnapper?
Growing up, my father always said that >nobody owes you anything, anything you get from your friends,uncles and Aunty's is a previledge and not a right. He went as far as saying your parents don't owe you anything, especially when they have trained you in school..
He said all these to make me understand that I have to work for myself and my money.
He made me understand that helping people is a thing of choice and not mandatory. Sometime ago, a friend requested for a loan of a hundred thousand naira. I was broke that period and didn't even have upto twenty thousand naira in my bank account as at that time. I told this friend of mine that I couldn't help at that point.
Till date, he hasn't spoken to me since then. Because she felt I had the money and didn't want to give him. The truth is that people are going through a lot. It is not everyone that can come out in the open and explain what they are going through. There is so much going on now and people are managing and living one day at a time especially after the covid-19 pandemic.
A lot of persons are just packaging their selves and believing that it will be okay soon.
The crux of the matter is that a lot is going on, we all need to work hard and be hopeful too.
Entitlement mentality is really bad and I wish a lot of persons who dwell with this mentality will understand and stop feeling completely entitled .
Thank you for reading
All the pictures are mine and done with my consent