Recently I went to a gathering. It's a really large gathering, well over a million people attend annually so my family and I had to make sure we went early so we could get good seats. Turns out a lot more people got there earlier than we anticipated, so we didn't get the seats we thought we'd get. Some of us had to split into groups.
After sitting for a while, some guy who I think was a steward came with a group of people, most of whom were elderly. He then started asking that we please leave our seats so the elderly people could sit. I have a lot of respect for the elderly, but the way he was talking I felt he was just trying to guilt trip us into leaving our seats so I didn't plan on leaving mine. Moreover there were still seats at the back, so they could also go there. It was until my siblings vacated their seats I was compelled to also leave my seat. The guy also said he'd make provisions for seats for us once his friend who was going to get seats from the back comes.
We stood there waiting and before we knew it he was nowhere to be found. Soon after seats were brought, but they refused to give us because apparently they were reserved. I was pissed. Now we only had two options, wait and see whether we'd get a seat eventually, or go sit far back. By then all somewhat manageable seats had been taken.
Later on, some other Stewards came and started ushering us to go sit at the back. We explained what happened and they refused to listen. We were all frustrated so we didn't listen. They talked and talked and we refused. We could see a stack of chairs right behind us and they didn't want to arrange them for us. I didn't even move an inch. I stood there like I didn't hear a single word. One of them felt threatened by me and started saying things like "Don't make me use force."
As luck would have it I saw a familiar face in the steward uniform passing by. It was a family friend. I told her what happened and she went to speak with them. They still didn't let her take the chairs so she told me she'd escort me to take some chairs from the back to the front. As I took the chairs forward she'd talk to any steward who tried to stop me from taking chairs there.
Upon getting to the front as I was unstacking the chairs and giving my siblings and some others that had been chased, this random lady came and was trying to struggle with me for my chair. It was a laughable situation really, at that moment I was really angry. Oh well, in the end I got my chair, very close to the place I wanted.
It was really frustrating and it probably reduced the quality of the convention because I had a headache afterwards, but as someone close to me said, look at the bright side of things.
Later on during the event, I locked eyes with the Steward who told me he'd use force to move me and I let out a big grin, he looked and couldn't hold himself from smiling back.
I looked deeply at what happened and I realized this whole encounter actually taught me a lesson.
If you want something you have to be willing to fight for it.
I'd have been sitting at the back, where the audio quality is poor and be thinking about how I could have sat in the front, if I didn't choose to remain adamant and hopeful that in the end I'd get what I want. Some people who were told to go back, unfortunately did and I'm sure they probably regret doing so. Fighting for what you want is a very good trait to have. If you want to succeed you need to be ready to give everything.
Another thing I also learnt from the encounter is that
Knowing people is very important
I probably wouldn't have been able to get my own chairs to the front had it not been for my family friend who I bumped into. She was really helpful. Knowing people could open a lot of opportunities and make things that would be so difficult a lot easier. I never underestimate the power to make friends. Friends save lives.