By Boluwatife Ezekiel Olaleye

YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS, TRUE LIFE EPISTLE

Read and be honest, tell the kind of category of people you fall under

I was on my way home one day, travelling from the busy streets of the civilized Ogba, blessed with good drainage, street lights and well-constructed roads to the rather rural Agbado of Ogun State plagued with the ever-present problem of bad drainage, bad roads and bad governance;a place that happen to be my residence.

It was raining heavily so much that I was regretting not coming with my new blue-red striped umbrella...and I was carrying my one and only HP laptop in my bag shielding with every part of my black-skinned body as I moved past conductors, drivers shouting at the top of their Alcohol-damaged voices "Akute-Ajuwon! Ajuwon-Akute, N70 bus, Ogba! Enter wit your change oo", Hausa boys selling fruits like oranges, watermelon and other business people going on with their businesses.

After luckily crossing the highway plied by impatient drivers who refused to wait and kept on with the speed of their various brand of vehicles, I ran as far as my feet could carry me because I knew I was in for a thorough beating by the rain if I missed the one vehicle with conductor calling, "Agbado! Enter with your N100 change! Agbado! Agbado! I fought my way in using my youthful agility and strength to get in ahead of the older "mamas" and "papas"-at least, I was able to occupy the last seat by the door side.

We kicked start our journey, however, we had not even travelled five minutes when a round, short, moderately-fat girl-from assumption, should be 18-19 years of age-dressed in a way a student like me won't call casual, shouted in yoruba language "maami, maami, e ma bo", signalling her from the bus to run and come join her in a bus that had practically, no space at all... Obviously, she couldn't afford to see her mom beaten by the rain while she went away in the bus going to a not-so-presentable Agbado.

The driver yelled at her, telling her that he can't wait for anybody, ranting that he wouldn't accept lapping in his bus and simultaneously, some passengers were reprimanding her saying that why didn't she notified that she still had someone waiting, that they can't allow her to waste their time but she was claiming that she didn't know her mom would still be in the garage as she thought she would have gone already with the previous bus.

The driver yelled again, are you mad at all, don't damage my door, I have locked it already and I can't come down to open it but the amazing thing, something I admired a lot was that this girl would not stop calling on her mom to run in the heavy rain and a slippery ground to come join the bus despite the yelling and insult, she didn't give up, telling her mother not to bother running because of the "no space" reason and to my utmost astonishment, passengers who had earlier made moves to shut her up were the one telling g the driver to stop and wait for her mother, they eventually reasoned and felt pity for her probably because they realized that the rain was just too heavy for the mother to remain in and YES...

She quickly hopped in with her pots which I am sure was meant to for keeping cooked soups or rice, in short, I knew from that moment that she was a food seller and no wonder her daughter was dressed in the way I earlier described.

The girl was able to achieve her mission and feel happy within her because she never gave up or gave in to insults or embarrassment, how victorious? I am pretty sure, which you will all agree with me that that mother would be happy from the inside and even without speaking, the girl would obviously have received blessing one way or the other.

My Question now is

Can you do the same for your mother or father? Can you endure even the worst insult, humiliation, embarrassment, that you don't imagine yourself going through because of anybody for the sake of your parents?

Answer honestly, as for me, I never thought I would be able to do it because I hate embarrassment but I learnt a lot from that girl.

Did you learn as well? Give comments