It was definitely a quick Sunday really. You know, after church - which takes half a day already – the rest of the day should be for total rest anyway. But that’s for older people. The young chaps like me would definitely not rest even though we want to. And no matter how we try. Or wait, maybe Thomas Shelby was right in Peaky Blinders when he said “There is no rest for me in this world” 🤔. There is rest for me in Jesus’ name 🔥 – now, that’s me deep down in my African mind.
As I said, we will always find something to un-rest. And I was no different. I took the time for the remaining part of Sunday to reply and engage participants on the HiveNaija Weekend Engagement hosted by /
where the main topic was Anger. Can you imagine someone saying that when you are almost getting angry you should drink water? I’d be like what if that person was Sodium..? 🤔 👇
Source
Maybe I will elucidate more on the Anger thing in another post.😁
Fast forward to the evening, my friend - Emma - who I was staying with for a couple of days felt needed to buy some singlets. And he wanted to buy them at that moment. But I warned that he might get it overpriced because, obviously, who buys singlets when it was almost the middle of the night? By 7 pm?😒 I said it’d show he needed it dearly hence the overprice prediction. So, he…. Don’t tell me you think he didn’t listen to my idea. Actually, FYI, he didn’t!! 😑 Well, he had to go alone since I was pretty busy reading about weird anger management skills... 😅
Some minutes later, Emma was back with some cool white singlets. I must confess, I felt a little jealous, positively. But as a big man, you shouldn’t show it.😎 So, the time to check the goods out, and I remembered we agreed that he should get a 3-in-1 singlet pack. Upon loosening the seal, lo and behold, it was just two we found inside. Emma shouted, “I have been swindled”.
To me, the room was both funny and serious at the same time. The kind of "I told you so" moment. I had to make sure he saw not seeing double – wait, that was actually what he saw though. Two still means double, right? At that very moment, student activism rose up in me, this is a gross injustice. 😎 Honestly, I don’t know if “injustice” was the right word to use but something just had to be said. I had to drop what I was doing and we marched in solidarity back to the seller of this… injustice.
By the time we were halfway to the shop, we were kind of tired from being angry and walking quickly simultaneously. I think it was then our brain jolted. This was after the adrenaline “activism” in me had gotten normal. Then, Emma asked, “Wait, Temi, how do I approach the woman?”. Deep down in me, I thought, “Are you asking me? You should have known that before we left home!” .🙆♂
Again he said, “I need to be as fatally dramatic as possible so she can take me seriously”. It was at the mention of that “fatally” that I told him that he should not take things too hard. Since he had a piece of evidence which was me, he should just be himself but show his discontentment for the what? Injustice. Can you imagine a whole comrade giving advice that is "un-aluta" in nature? Well, before you judge me, it is not entirely my fault. My school has been on strike since March so my spirit has greatly reduced in me.
However, we practiced a few things when we were some feet away from the shop. And swooped in! The seller wasn't present, so a neighbor had to call her for us. Then, my friend handed the goods to her saying that the number of singlets has diminished by one and it was three he asked to buy. In my mind, that activism was starting to rise in me, just in case, the woman denied anything – even her name.😒 I was ready to unleash. But the woman just collected the package, checked to make sure our info was correct, and gently brought out another pack to give us. Better! This time around, you don’t make mistakes twice, we checked and it was 3 in there. Oh boy, that was smooth. Phew!
So, all that was for nothing. The activism spirit that was already taking a hold of me, the rehearsed mode of a dramatic entrance, the precise words to use, the tone and proper emphatic stress to be placed on these words..etc. All into the dustbin? I never got the chance to show her (or them) how much of a macho I am.💪 Oh, if I had gotten the chance, I would have ...🤐 Well, let’s leave that. That was smooth really, people! It was a fight that never happened!