You never can tell

It was a regular Saturday. After standing for hours, braiding the hair of one of my favourite persons in the world, and then failing to attend a meeting I looked forward to attending, I finally got time for myself. I sat down to continue reading a book I’d already started, but zoned out along the way. My mind travelled to happenings in my week and amidst everything, one experience stood out and rather than leave it in my personal diary, I decided to share it here.

I had an altercation with a grown man sometime this week and that is something I rarely ever do. In short, I was never the type to talk back at an adult or leer at them when things didn’t go my way. Rather, I would endure whatever injustice meted out to me, and let it pass because I believed that any form of reaction was disrespectful. But this week was different and I’ll tell you how. I have this phone that has charging issues. So, I recently got a cord that’s been working just fine for said phone. Since last week, this man has been coming to me at the office, in need of this charger because he hasn’t been coming with the one for his camera. Everytime he asks, I lend him.

Last week Friday, he took my charger home. I wasn’t angry or frustrated or anything when I found out because it seemed like a simple omission. However, I got to work on Monday and called him to confirm if he was with the charger. He told me it wasn’t with him that day but he would go back to check his house. Since it was for my alternative phone, I could definitely go one more day without it so I agreed.

Unfortunately, this man had other plans. Tuesday passed, there were no sights of him. I was so busy, I couldn’t even call him. Then Wednesday came, I called him and let him know that my phone needed charging since Friday. He didn’t even let me finish my sentence before telling me that ‘I am so rude for chasing him around with calls because of a simple cord’. I was flabbergasted at this point and I flared up. Raising my voice at him before he cut the call. Long story cut short, he brought my cord for me that day and I didn’t even feel the need to greet or exchange pleasantries with him. He brought my cord to me, I stretched out my hands, took it and went about my day.

This happened since Wednesday but every-time I think about it, it brings me back to how different we all are as humans. Whenever I have to borrow something from someone, I panic when I can’t return it as quickly as possible. I’d even inconvenience myself just to reunite the person with their belongings. But this man did it without an iota of guilt.

We all have different principles guiding us. You have no idea the value of something that seems inconsequential to you, compared to someone else. How many times have I actually disregarded someone else’s priority just because it didn’t seem like a priority? That’s the thing with life. You never can tell.

Raising my voice, didn’t leave me with a feeling of guilt neither did it give me the feeling that I handled it rightly. Maybe just as he had no right to hold my cord custody for days, did I also have no right to raise my voice at him. But then again, you never can tell in situations like these.

Thanks for reading.

Images are mine.

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