I often hear people say that "when you think you have it worse, wait till you see the situation others find themselves in". While I agree that no matter how bad one's situation might be, there is always another who has it much worse but then what I don't like is when those people allow others to think less of themselves.
Something happened when I was younger which made me believe that the "grass isn't always greener on the other side" as some make us believe otherwise.
This happened when I was in secondary school, I think around SSS1. There was a new student that joined our class, her name was Teni, she is tall and beautiful and because of her height, she was asked to sit with me at the back.
What drew me close to Teni at first was her jovial nature but then I noticed she talks a lot. Sometimes I think a little too much as it was beginning to sound like she was boasting.
One thing I noticed was her lack of seriousness in terms of writing notes, she didn't start the term from the beginning which means she has some notes she has yet to copy.
I offered to give her some of my notes but she always returned them without having completed hers. When I asked her about it she told me she usually pays some of her classmates in her former school to help her write her notes.
When I asked where she got the money to pay them, she told me it was from her pocket money which her dad always sent to her weekly. According to her, her dad works in an oil company and isn't always around as he usually travels abroad for meetings.
She is a sweet talker which made students believe her, myself included coupled with the fact that she does come to school with a huge amount of money which she uses to buy snacks and other things for some students in the class.
Some of these students help her copy her notes and she in turn brings some goodies for them while she talks about the mansion where she lives and how she had her room and other things. All her stories make me wish to be like her. I wondered how good it would feel to have my room without having to share it with my siblings.
But despite her stories, something in me still has a "doubt" as I wondered why her parents would send her to a public school if they could afford to send her to those private schools where their fees were exorbitant.
One day while she continued with the tale of her rich parents, I asked her the question that had been bugging my mind.
"But why are you here with us in a public school instead of attending a private school?". She was a bit stunned, I am guessing she wasn't expecting me to be that direct, but she recovered quickly and laughed. Then she immediately wore what looked like a sad face, "Oh she was that good".
Then she told us her dad brought her here as a "Punishment". According to her, her dad felt she was becoming overpampered and needed her to learn "humility" and the act of giving to others. She further explained that that was the reason why her dad insisted she take public transport instead of allowing their personal driver to drop her off at school.
The explanation garnered her some pity from everyone around her except me because I felt that was no excuse for any parent who could afford to give good and quality education to their children to rather send their children to an overpopulated school.
Then I tried again to "check her truth" by asking that we come to visit her to see this "mansion" for ourselves but when she told us they had three large dogs in their compound, my fear of dogs couldn't let me pursue it further. It got to a point where I started to believe her myself but I couldn't help the feeling that she was hiding something.
"Was this jealousy?", I asked myself one day as I lay down on the sofa in our sitting room. I looked around my house which was uncompleted back then and wished for a mansion with house help doing the house chores so I wouldn't have to do house chores like Teni.
Then one day something happened. A friend of my mums had an occasion which I attended with my mum at her friend's request. Her daughter was having her Walimat Quran ( This is a form of graduation for Islamic students who have completed recitation of the Quran and moving to another phase). The parents of such children are always happy to throw a party to celebrate this milestone as it is seen as a thing of joy to have your child complete the recitation of the Holy Quran.
It's no news that Yoruba mothers are very good at throwing parties to grace occasions like this, there will be lots of food and drinks with lots of people in attendance.
On that day my mum and I arrived at the venue and we were welcomed and directed to a seat under a canopy. Afterwards, we were served food and drinks, I ate my fill and I also enjoyed the occasion.
As the occasion was coming to an end, my mum gave me some money and told me to get a polythene bag from the shop opposite the venue so we could place the food and drinks already packed for us to take back home.
As I got to the small provision shop, I met a woman there and I got the polythene bag, then she called on her daughter to bring her purse so she could give me my balance, and lo and behold, the girl who came out from the room facing the shop with nothing but a wrapper tied to her chest was none other than Teni, my classmate.
I thought my eyes were deceiving me till I called her name and she looked at me with shock written all over her face.
"Do you know her?", her mum asked her, obviously confused at what looked like a staring competition, well I was doing most of the staring while Teni bowed her head probably in shame.
"She is my classmate ma", I replied to her mum when it seemed Teni had suddenly lost her voice.
"Okay, take care of yourself dear" her mum said while I thanked her. I waved goodbye to Teni but she couldn't respond. I left to give my mum the polythene bag.
As we made our way back home, I couldn't help but play back what happened back there and all the lies Teni had told for a long time now.
Starting from the *supposed mansion" which is a one-room rented apartment colloquially known as "face me-I slap you" to her mum's big supermarket and of course the cars and maids which were nowhere to be found. I couldn't hold my laughter as I burst into laughter which earned me a look from my mum.
*"You think the other side of the grass is always green? Why don't you try multi-colored?
But she was right about one thing though. I remembered seeing three tiny dogs playing in front of the house, so she wasn't totally in error, or was she?