Running deep only emotions can be somehow dangerous because our emotions are so powerful and sometimes makes us act unreasonably. Prioritizing just our emotions or allowing it override the brain prevent us from seeing further than what we are doing or about to do, we become blind to the future consequences and it most times doesn’t end well.
We all must have read or even experience situations where people act on emotions and ended up regretting they hadn’t. An example was the story of two men who fought because their kids had misunderstanding and before they knew it, one of them died from stabbing.
It’s not like been emotional is a terrible thing, there are situations that requires lots of emotional approach so we can’t condemn the influence our emotions have on us but allowing it push us to act harshly is what doesn’t make any sense.
I use to have these Igbo boys [Emeka and Junior] who were learning trade in my former environment and we were kind of close. My emotions made me open myself to these boys because their living condition always made me sad. They sleep in the shop while their boss have a home, they eat late and weren’t treated well.
I tip them often and they became very free to me. They shared their stories, how they were deceived into learning the trade and others. Intervening in such situation was beyond me so the little I could do was to be kind to them.
Sometimes, when I go there. We chat and they beg me to take pictures of them. They had the intention of taking the pictures when they get a phone.
After a while, I realized that one of these boys [Junior] was rolling with some guys in neighborhood. These guys don’t work, they go about tasking people and on several occasions, I have told them to go and work instead of begging when they approached me.
These guys hated me and I know it so when I started seeing them always chatting with Junior, I withdrew a bit. I later stopped going there and would just send my siblings.
The other boy [Emeka] always send his regards and I honestly missed them. I took them as brothers already so one morning when I needed some things, I decided to go with my immediate brother.
Upon arriving there, the one who sends his regards [Emeka] was happy and he started asking me why I didn’t come to their shop. I gave an excuse and told him the things I needed.
While he was packing my goods, I realized Junior hadn’t said word to me and I called him asking what’s wrong. He just reacted somehow and I felt pissed because these boys were the same age as my third younger brother.
I asked if he was alright for replying me that way and he started saying crazy words asking if I was mad.
Without thinking twice, I removed my belt and went close to him. I attempted wiping him and missed, striking a 5ltr groundnut oil keg sitting on a display shelf. The keg fell and burst immediately, I honestly didn’t see anything and was boiling.
The boy reached for a knife inside their shop and it even got me more angry. My brother and Emeka were holding me back but I couldn’t control my emotions and just wanted to punish him for disrespecting me.
I eventually had to call myself back to order, paid for the damage and left the place but one thing I noticed was that, those nuisance I mentioned earlier were lurking around.
My brother was pissed and kept asking what if the belt hit the boy at the wrong place? He blamed me for not controlling my emotions and I felt terrible. I stopped going and warned my siblings not to go there anymore.
I was heading out some weeks later when I passed through their place. Emeka saw me and rushed out immediately. He apologized for what Junior did and also told me that even Junior regretted his actions.
Emeka made it clear that those nuisance poisoned Junior heart towards me, they faked being big brother only to buy credit and teach him bad stuff.
I didn’t see Junior so I asked where he was and Emeka said, Junior was missing. One of those guy convinced him to come sleep at his place instead of the shop and Junior followed.
He didn’t show up at work and his boss alerted the police immediately, Junior was brought back to the shop and when he returned, he insisted on not learning that trade anymore.
His boss didn’t have a choice than to return the boy to his parents in the village but Junior absconded a day before and they haven’t seen him since then.
I am the type who doesn’t get angry but been disrespected doesn’t sit well for me because I respect people whether young or old. I always thought I had my emotions under control but that incident made realized that our emotions can bottle us up in secs. I became cautious since then and always put my brain first before emotions.
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