As an individual, I have always had a different perspective about the world in general, due to different traumatic events I have experienced. I believe there should be some kind of balance in the world, In a world filled with individuals driven solely by their ambitions and selfish interest, we need selfless individuals to keep humanity from being exterminated.*
Having this at the back of my mind I try as much as possible to be kind towards people especially those in desperate need of it, this attitude of mine started manifesting naturally thanks to my religious background, it made me feel good about myself and my surroundings but based on my experience so far, I can boldly say it is not a rosy path. When I cross path with individuals with different perspective about the act of kindness, their reasons for not being kind seems justifiable.
There is a way life make us victims of our righteousness acts, right from childhood I have always had some kind of supernatural power. I was born into a family of 6 and we have been Christians for as long as I can remember. Due to my childhood experiences about life I have always had a sharp instinct that aided my ability to make the right decisions for myself.
Being a Christian, most might consider it to be a prophetic ability which might also be true but this ability of mine allows me to predict the outcome of some situations before it actually happened. Though it has helped me a lot in life when I end up making decisions that could have been devastating if it were wrong but some times this specific instinct of mine has gotten me in a lot of trouble with friends, I consider it to be a survival instinct since that is the only rational explanation I could come up with.
During the first year of my Higher national diploma in Moshood Abiola polytechnic mass communication department, every second semester of the first year there is a course in our curriculum called practice of advertising that involves the use of practical. The whole idea of the course is to train us on how to become professional advertising practitioners and the best way to achieve that is through undergoing of practical.
Though I have talked about it briefly in one of my earlier post on a different topic, As advertising student in order to fulfill the requirement of the practical we need to form a group of 30 students, each student having their department similar to the structure of an advertising agency. After forming the group we have to take a letter to any company of our choice requesting for their permission to use their company or product for advertising practical.
The decision of which company to use has to be discussed in group meeting along with other stuff related to the practical. Before the commencement of the practical Dr Wasiu (Lecturer in charge of the course) informed all students about need for individual participation in the practical and informed all group leaders to make use of attendance to note compliance of student with the rules, Every student must be available for the meetings which holds on Mondays and Wednesdays after lecture hours.
I was not the group leader initially but I was elected based on my academic capabilities, As you all know not all student willful comply to rules and regulations or else they are threatened. As time goes on the numbers of student that attend meetings reduced and the practical needs all hands on deck. In order for me to boast group morale I threatened to report the group members attitude to the lecturer and they knew the implications of it. I knew I was just bluffing because I wouldn't want to them have Carry over in the course.
To my surprise on Monday, Dr Wasiu came to the class and requested for the practical attendance and promised that attendance only is 30 marks out of the 50 marks awarded to the course practical. I was shocked because I knew I have not reported, I was just bluffing. I guess the lecturer has noticed the student attitude towards the practical.
Hearing this, majority of my group members who were not attending meetings accused me of reporting to the Lecturer. We had a meeting on that same Monday as usual, they came but not for the meeting. They came to find a way to take away the group leader title from me which was not successful I still had the support of the lecturer and some of the group members they threatened to beat me up after school and all sort of things.
I knew I had to do something about the situation because it was already getting out of control. I knew I had nothing to do with the lectures decision but then I know how dangerous could be if they feel like someone is trying to hurt their grades. So when the lecturer requested for the attendance, I had already ticked majority of the empty spaces to prove my members where active during meetings. From his reaction it felt like he knew I was covering up for my group members but Dr wasiu didn't say anything. I went back to my group members and informed them that the situation is settled just to make sure I refuse their hatred towards me.
Finally I felt the worst has been avoided but I was wrong, when the lecturer was distributing souvenirs for group leaders for their performance I didn't get any and when our individual grades for the practical was pasted, compared to other group leaders I scored the lowest. The most annoying part was that my group was one of the groups that scored the highest in the practical, I felt the need to approach the lecturer but then a part of me knew I wasn't being punished for my dishonesty with the attendance.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Sacrifice for peace" in hive learners community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
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