Ever heard the quote that ”they don't deserve you if they don't appreciate you?”
I believe that most people don't just decide that they want to stop helping people, they might have made that decision based on how the person who they had helped treated them in return. If we hear bad stories about what some people had done to people who helped them we might also make that decision not to help people or do nice things for them.
Sometimes we do things not expecting the person to do the same in return or even pay us but a simple ”thank you” goes a long way to know that they appreciate what we did for them.
I have also been in that situation where I helped someone and my efforts were not appreciated. It happened when I was in a higher institution. I remembered back then that as students we always try to help one another in one way or the other, we work together to find a way to minimize cost because we know that our parents are also trying their best to send the little they have to us in order to be able to make ends meet.
Back then, I went to school from home but most of my friends have hostels close to the school which I do go to sometimes to read or just to have fun especially when we don't have classes. There in my friends hostel, there is this lady that I got to know through them because she is a tenant there and she is also a student in my school but not in the same department as me and my friends but we sometimes take general courses together.
As most of us know that in higher institutions, there are some lecturers that love doing “extra” when it comes to giving assignments. Though some lecturers do it for departmental courses because the population is not too much,but to see lecturers doing it for general courses with a large population makes one wonder how they expect to go through all of the assignments one after the other.
In cases like this, about 10 students can write the same thing and just change their name and matric number without the lecturers knowing. I think some of these lecturers only take records of those who submitted the assignments and just award marks for submission.
So for the assignment this lecturer gave us, we will type and spiral bind, then submit at a stated time. After the class that day, my friends and I went to their hostel and there we were talking about how we were going to do the typing and how much it would cost us since none of us has a PC.
Then I thought of something, I told them that my neighbor has a desktop and printer in their house which I do use sometimes and they have always told me that I could come use it whenever I want to, I should just inform them so they can let me know if they have enough A4 paper for printing or I would have to get some. So I told my friends that I would do the typing and printing during the weekend, so what will be left is for them to spiral bind and we would all submit. They all loved the idea and thanked me. So we immediately started working on what I would type, since we were 5 in number, we decided to prepare two different answers so we won't all write the same thing.
We were almost done with preparing the answers when this lady came in, her room is directly opposite my friend's room. She saw what we were doing and asked that we should assist her too. One of my friends told her that I would be doing the typing and printing and she asked me to also include her name which she provided along with her matric number.
When I got home that day, I immediately went to my neighbor and told them that I would be coming to use their computer and printer the next day and they gave me the go-ahead. I also saw that they had some A4 paper for printing. So the next day, I went to their house and did the typing. When I was done, I noticed that both answers we prepared were about 6 pages each, the first page contained our names, matric number and course of study which I typed and printed in large and bold font, while the remaining 5 pages is for the content of the assignment. I did one for three of us and the other for the remaining three.
All I did was to change the name and matric number in each case. I actually did the lady's own last since her name was the last one on the list and it turned out that there were only two A4 papers left before I could do her own. I had to quickly rush down to the stationary close to me to buy 3 more which I used to complete hers. I thanked my neighbors when I was done and went back home.
When I got to school on Monday, I quickly gave my friends theirs and they were so happy, hyping me and all that, so we decided to go and bind it at the cyber cafe after we gave the lady her own, so we all went to her department to give her hers. When I handed it over to her, I immediately saw the look on her face that she didn't like what I had typed. Then she confirmed it by saying the front page which contains her name is ”too plain”, I should have added a border or design and the font I used is not stylish… . blah blah blah.
My friends quickly corrected her by saying she should at least appreciate the effort I did for her instead of condemning it and the words that came out of her mouth was ”well, you try sha”. I felt so bad and there I told myself I would never do something like this for her again.
My friends and I went to the cyber cafe to complete the binding and submitted our assignment. I heard she later went to change the first page at the cafe to her own taste. My friends that stayed with her in the same hostel were very angry with her for what she did but I told them not to quarrel with her on my behalf. She saw me afterwards at the hostel and didn't apologize, I wasn't actually expecting any. Her actions doesn't stop me from helping other but I knew she was not deserving of any help from me in future.
This is my entry to day 2 of the September Inleo prompt. You can check the link below to participate.