By Ogunsesan Nafisat
She was so eager to go home. The joy she felt was so incomparable to any. The hurdles and challenges that came with the last semester were almost unbearable. But she faced it all. The moment they announced that all students are to pack out of the hostel, that same moment she phoned her father to come pick her. So, she started packing her loads singing ‘I’m going home’ along. In short, she felt ecstatic. As a friend, I was so happy for her because this semester made her lose much weight and indeed caused a lot of dramas.
On the fateful Friday she planned going home, by 9am she was already done packing. To me, that was quick but I had expected it. Before her father came to pick her, we decided to reminisce about the just concluded semester; the challenges, joy, pain, the new friends we made and above all the successes we recorded. In all, we gave God all the praise and thanksgiving. Even though I was happy she was going home to rest well, I was at the same time very sad. I was afraid I would miss my dear friend who is well behaved, resilient, hardworking, intelligent and smart too much to bear. In fact, she is a whole package as I fondly call her that. But I guess I would cope since we would chat and call each other every day.
By 5pm, her father came around. It was as if my friend packed the whole of the hostel. She packed nine bags to take home. After we both took the bags to the cars, she was ready to go home. But we realise a car was parked behind her dad’s. Then, we began the inquiry to know who owned the car. We found out that it was for the biggest personality in her hostel. Truthfully, we didn’t know it was an offence to park one’s car there; that lot was reserved for the biggest personality. Hurriedly, we went to his office to beg him to come park his car well so my friend’s father can go out. Unfortunately, he asked his personal assistant to drag us out.
Personally, I was so angry at his rudeness. But my friend suggested we called her dad to come meet him. So we went to fetch him. When we got to his office the second time, we hoped he would respect my friend’s father. However, in my entire life I never thought a human being could behave in such rude manner. Up till this moment, I still cannot believe that he slammed the door against my friend’s father disrespectfully and sent us out annoyingly. He said he would only listen to us when he was ready to go home. We all thought he was joking. We returned to the parking lot with the hope that he would come downstairs to attend to our request.
We waited and waited. He delayed us for over an hour. Together with his personal assistant and some others, he finally came around by 6:50. I was so angry. My friend was so angrier. In fact, her anger was evident on her cheeks. She cried and cried painfully. When I asked her the reason for the tears, she said she felt disrespected. I was shocked when she told me she hated the man for what he did. That coming out from my friend was indeed surprising. But I could feel her pain.
With anger in check, she approached the man and told me what he did was unfair and he utterly dishonored them. I was shocked my friend said those words gently. However, the biggest personality didn’t take the words lightly. He flared up and got the attention of everyone nearby. He insulted my friend and he even said he behaved that way to disrespect her father. I was so angry on her behalf. How could a man act in such impudent manner? When my friend’s father noticed the argument was becoming uncontrollably, he humbly begged to man to park well and let them go. I was fascinated at the humility. After he was begged, he became happy and parked well. Then, my friend and her father left. After the departure, I could not forget what happened and I know my friend would also not. Since then, I have some questions roaming in my mind that I would like to get answers to. Was the biggest personality right for treating us wrongly? Was my friend wrong for voicing her mind out to the biggest personality? Lastly, if it were you, what would you have done?
