Mr Ajayi was our physical education teacher, I loved exercise because of him. We were just in basic class two (primary 2), but we already knew the essence of exercise. Through Mr. Ajayi we learnt different exercise routines and the need to exercise for mental health. He taught us songs and when ever we sang we played and ran around like the Captain Von Trapp family in the popular movie "sound of music". No wonder even at this age I still jump around while seeing that movie.
We chattered and sang all around the play ground and having fun, Physical education session was one of the best time in school then. Every child loved it. One of the songs goes thus:
Boys are to play apart!
(Boys are to play apart!)
Girls are to play apart!
(Girls are to play apart!)
Do not mix yourself with boys
(Do not mix yourself with boys)
Do not mix yourself with girls
(Do not mix yourself with girls)...(we repeated as many times as we wanted).
Back then trust me this little play songs made us look forward to every Wednesday for sports or PE as we called it. Most of all, we dressed cute with our shorts and white trainers. In fact sometimes I want to be on the playground again.
But then there was one of our play song that I would never forget. This song so much changed the way I thought even as a kid and I grew up with it. Although am not sure if I can still remember all of the lyrics but the chorus goes thus:
Do your best and leave the rest (×2).
Seems boring... I know, but then it was never boring. They were mostly short play songs but there were tons of them to sing. We enjoyed every big of our PE until it's over. Something tells me Mr.Ajayi composed those songs himself because I have not heard most of them anywhere.
I learnt from Mr. Ajayi's songs the basics of life.
I didn't know about most children but I picked so much from the songs Mr. Ajayi taught us. I can not say much but there was something about them. Most of them sounded more like an advise than mere songs to me.
At a point in life I realised that my PE teacher's song has taught me an aspect of life very important. Though he was quite old as at then, he never agreed to resign. His reasons I didn't know but now I do. I see he wanted to remain to groom more children to face the world.
one of them : Do your best and leave the rest.
When that song plays in my head, I ask myself, To whom do I leave the rest for? It happens that I asked lots of question back then and I don't think I have stopped. Well back then at the playground, "Do your best" was a going- in song that shows that we are done for the day and that it was time for the 2B class to come over for theirs. So I sang with all happiness knowing that my class 2A did their best and would be leaving the rest for class 2B. Truthfully we did our best at the play ground. All the mental and physical task we did, we gave our best to achieve but at tge end of the day we could end up not getting all. So those ones undone,we believed it was for class 2B, since they were to come in after we might have gone in for other lessons.
I came out later in the real world and there was no class 2B around to leave the rest for and that was when it dawned on me that this is no long our PE ground. Life has begun.
let what you can't change be.
Yes... We have the power to change things, change our lives and all of that. The power to become stars still remain in our hands. To move and change the ways we think, feel, and live. All these are in our hands and not in someone else's. The power to be happy, to be successful, to be at the top... All depends and lies with us. But these like our PE session requires their own human efforts.
But am sorry there are things you can not change as well. That is why if you have put all you have and can yet things you can't crop up, it's time to take a chill pill, relax, regroup yourself again before setting out again.
You can not change people's behaviour, you can not force people to believe what you believe in, to accept your ideas all the time even when they mean well, to like you, accept you, trust you and so on.
However, people quit when it happens that they can not change these things. Some want so hard for approval and if they don't get immediately they surrender.
It's not about anyone this time, it's about you.
Who told you can not do well , that you won't be great, Who is trying to put into your head that you are less of what you are? How is that?!
I tell you this, how you take live is how it plays out. You have to check what you entangle yourself with. How you twist your life around things that can never change. All you need is to do your own best and live the rest.
But you have to weigh your best if it is good enough. Your best is where you have exhausted all your zeal, hard work, and enthusiasm to succeed in something. Then all that is left is to hope and be positive that your hard work pays. However, positivity comes into play. If you have done your best and still not positive, then am afraid.
What is it that seem impossible to you, what is so like you can not achieve, what have you tried and it came out not even as quarter as you wanted or expected? Business, academics, relationship, marriage, right habit? Name them.
All you need is extra work, determination and positive vibes. Work hard till you are convinced and confident you will succeed. Do your best best and live the rest.
Mr. Ajayi's songs to us taught me to do my best and live the rest. I later understood that we have the power to do what ever is good that we want but to live those things we can not change and focus on ones we can.
After I left my alma mata, I missed our PE session with Mr. Ajayi. The last time I saw him he has grown even older but yet his bones were still so strong. I dedicate this piece to Mr. Ajayi my Physical Education teacher back in the days when I was starting to know what life is all about and to all teachers who taught beyond class room scheme but gave their pupils the power to be the best they can be.
Never forget that the power to change your live is in your hands... let your best be good enough.
Thank you for reading.
Image credit: PIXABAY.