CLOSURE.
Growing up, I had the toughest junior Secondary school year. I was the kid that was known as the troublesome student in school, quite mischievous I must say. In fact, I sometimes found myself being punished for an offence I knew nothing of, even after clearing myself and making it clear to the Seniors/teachers who took it upon themselves to punish me at any little offence, they still believed I was involved. The truth is I wasn’t that troublesome. I did get into little troubles but nothing serious that could get me expelled or suspended or something that could lead to me been punished on the assembly ground or observing manual labour.
I was just me and not a lot of people could understand that but one person did and he is my Mentor. His name is Alhaji Shehu Ibrahim. He was my Jss2 mathematics teacher. The thing is I hated maths, i hated maths so much...But when he taught me mathematics that was the first time in my junior year that I had a B in maths😂. But after that I continued my journey with C in Mathematics because he was no longer my Maths teacher. Mr Ibrahim saw soo much in me, he saw so much more than I saw in myself. Infact, I would say he built my self confidence.
How did it all start you may ask? It started when I was placed in Blue house one of the houses in my school. I always wanted to run but you see the house I was coming from was Red house and the house master refused to let me run because like he said "you don’t look like a runner"But when I got to Blue house it was fantastic! I was allowed to run and run... I participated in the school’s running competitions. Infact, I became a member of the school relay team.
After all these, I am talking about him making maths easy for me, allowing me to build my confidence he became my Guardian. He was like my second father. And guys for the first time in forever I was able to talk to a teacher freely without thinking if I was rude or if I was saying the right thing. He allowed me to be myself, he understood me so much that when my parents tried to make me do some things which as at the time I was in Secondary school I didn’t know they were for my own good, he calmly explained everything to me and like always I listened . I sometimes go to his office to collect money knowing fully well the pocket money I had with him has been exhausted and he will always give me money and he doesn’t even remove it from my next pocket money. Sometimes, he would go out to buy food for me. I am talking pounded yam and efo with inu eran😂😂. I had so much fun. Him being my Guardian made me feel like I was always going to be first whenever it had to do with him.
Finishing Secondary school in the year 2019, I still communicated with him. This is to show you how strong our bond is. On my birthday July 1 2020, he called me and although a friend of mine already called me I was still sleepy but when he called me and asked me to get up, I got up! He said "why will you be sleeping on your birthday?My friend get up! We chatted for long and that was it.
I started to save for Mr Ibrahim’s birthday that was coming up March 2021 and I already made plans with my mum on how she was going to deliver the cake and every other thing to him. I was so excited! I was finally doing something for this wonderful man with my own money.
On September 17th 2020, Mr Ibrahim died. I was in the kitchen and I remember my mum and my sister were in my mum’s room they were chatting and all of a sudden they became quiet. I decided to check up on them and the look on their faces got me confused and worried. I asked what happened and my mum and my sister looked at me with so much pain and worry and I started to get scared and then my mum said "Mr Ibrahim" I then asked what happened to him and my sister said "Mr Ibrahim is dead". I laughed guys, I laughed so hard. Because I was wondering what kind of a prank this was. It then dawned on me that they were not joking, they were actually serious. I cried soo hard.
People started reaching out to me and asking if I was ok because they knew how close we were, I simply thanked them and said I was fine. But honestly, I was not.
Even till now, I still am not. This is me writing this in January 2022. The reason I wrote this write up is to let you know that some of us are still grieving. Some of us, have still not found closure and that some of us will never find closure.And this is because we haven’t gotten over the death of an important person in our life. It feels like the moment we find closure, the memories we have of them will no longer be alive . But this doesn’t mean we won’t live our best lives. Trust me, we will. Infact due to the lose of our loved one, we work so hard in the hope’s that If they were to be alive they will be proud of us. I am not always going to write about happy endings. I am not perfect and neither is any human. But we all go through life like we should and that is what makes us human. This write-up is a tribute to My forever Mentor, my Confidant, my Friend and my Guardian. Meeting you was destiny, being close to you and having you treat me like your daughter is a privilege. Thank you for all you did, I love you and your memory will forever remain alive. Rest on legend. Your legacy lives on. Till we meet to part no more, rest in peace.