Gratitude is the act of being appreciative of others for one good deed or another they have done for you. Unfortunately, not everyone around us is appreciative of the help being rendered to them. While some don't see the help as a big deal, some just feel entitled and see no reason to show gratitude. Regardless of which avenue yours falls into, it's definitely not a good trait, and today I'll love to share my experience as an ungrateful person.
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Before diving into my experience, it's worthy of note that the importance of gratitude can never be overemphasized. While showing gratitude can prompt people to want to give you more support, it can also make people feel special knowing that their act in one way or another aided you. On the other hand, not showing gratitude can hinder your possibility of getting help from the same person you failed to appreciate after your first reaction to their first support.
Without further ado, let's dive into my experience. A few months ago, a colleague of mine at work contacted me about how her husband's birthday is coming up, their wedding anniversary, and also her mom's birthday. Given the fact that she has seen me create some amazing videos in the past to celebrate some of our superiors and coworkers, she asked that I please help her design three separate videos and some flyers to commemorate those days.
She has obviously made inquiries from other coworkers who I made some for to know I'm the one behind the videos, and I'm certain they would have told her I do charge a few pennies for my efforts, but she obviously has no mindset of paying, as I discovered from our conversation, and fortunately for me, this came at a time when I was busy with some work activities, so I apologetically turned down the plea, my reason being that I've got a short deadline to complete the school activities, and there is no way I can merge that with her video request.
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Unfortunately, that didn't put her off my neck; instead, she asked to know the app I used in creating such videos, and without flinching, I told her it was the Power Director app. After telling her that, she went away only to come back to me after a while to inform me of the fact that the app is asking her to make a payment of over 15000 naira before she can have access to top tools, and I affirm that it's correct, and that's the main reason why I charge others a few pennies, so that'll at least cover the expenses for that subscription, and if it weren't so, I would have easily done it for free since they're close pals.
Well, the idea of paying such a huge amount put her off using the app, so instead she pleaded with me that I find away to just make the videos for her. I was skeptical, but then she ended the statement by saying she'll pay me something for my efforts when I'm done, so I said no problem and asked her to send some pictures of the celebrant and the key words she'll love to have in the video. She only sent pictures and no words, meaning I had to come up with those words.
Within my tight schedule, which wasn't even supposed to be enough to do the school work, I stayed up throughout the night just so I could have extra time to create her videos and flyers. On the third day, I sent the entire videos to her on WhatsApp, and in response, she sent a student to give me a token of 1000 naira for my service. What got me angry was the fact that she didn't acknowledge seeing the video both on WhatsApp and in person, and neither did she say thank you.
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The level of ingratitude was just so ridiculous that she couldn't even approach me herself to give me the money, probably because she knows other staff pay 2000 naira and she doesn't want to pay the same, so she sent a student. Another annoying act was knowing she saw the message I sent to her, and yet she never replied or said anything after that to date. Despite her ungrateful heart, I felt hurt each time I checked her WhatsApp status and saw her upload my creation to celebrate each milestone.
What that did to our friendship was obvious, because I never wanted to be close to her or have anything to do with her at all, and when she approached me physically to help her with another video, I bluntly turned her down. What that taught me was that I'll always come across ungrateful people, but I shouldn't judge everyone because of one person's singular misdeed.
That also taught me to be firm with my stand and what I charge for any service; if the person isn't willing to meet my rate, then it's best they patronize someone else, because coming below your standard has taught me to be an avenue to not being taken seriously and to being taken for granted.
I won't say we're no longer friends after this, but I can say for a fact that our relationship isn't like it once was, and I see no reason why I'll want to mend that loophole.
That's all about my experience with an ungrateful person and the end result. I hope you learned something from it. The article was inspired by the Hive Learner community features prompt.
Thanks so much for your time, have a wonderful week..