I Was Once This Kid

This picture was making waves on the internet about a month ago and it was a cause of laughter for many people. I downloaded it, but not for the purpose many others would.

[From the Internet]

The kid, apparently, wore the school's jacket over that piece of cloth on his neck, but he was found out.

Many people would download it for laughs, seeing it as hilarious, but I downloaded it because it brought back some sad and annoying memories.

Here’s my story.

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It was in the year 2000.

We had a househelp who had been working for us since when I was still a baby, so I grew up respecting and fearing her more than I did my parents.

She never allowed my parents see how much fear I had for her, she never allowed them see how bad she was. The thing is, she believed my parents were wicked to her, so she passed on the anger to us, the children, but it landed mainly on me, for some reason.

If I shared what I went through with her in the house, many of you would call her mad.

I was in secondary school, and still a junior student. The school uniform for the juniors in my school was a pinafore and a shirt worn underneath. I can’t remember what happened or what I did, but I earned her punishment which was to seize my shirt.

Did I say I feared her more than I feared my parents? I am not so sure of that anymore. Maybe I feared them equally, so I couldn’t tell them she seized my shirt, neither could I stay home without a good reason. I had better be dying of I’m staying home. Talk about being in a fix.

Well, I had this pink sweater which I had grown past, but it was the only cover I had and so I wore it over the uniform, even though the weather was hot.

That was the beginning of many things wrong.
In my school, then, we were only to wear the school’s cardigan if we felt cold, or at least let the sweater or cardigan be purple. My sweater was pink!

Of course the teachers caught me and called me to the staff room. Nigerians will know what it means to be called to the staff room; every teacher present trying to discipline you at the same time.

I stood there, still and taking all the harsh words and hoping they don’t ask me to take off the sweater. No such luck. I was asked to take it off, and my usually obedient self said no. They were about to use their canes before I confessed that I had no shirt under, just the pinafore.

I saw that they couldn’t wrap their heads around that. She felt I was a househelp not knowing that a househelp did that to me. They were worried.

I was sent home, and asked not to come back without at least one of my parents.

My parents couldn’t understand what happened and I wouldn’t say. I preferred to be punished and I was. I was punished and scolded. A new uniform was bought for me, and I was watched more closely. I don’t even remember what happened to the shirt she seized.

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My reason for sharing this story is that the school leadership have no idea why the kid dressed so, and instead of them trying to find out, they probably punished him, tagged him as being useless and many other things, all negative, but they’ll still leave him with the problem.
It wasn’t too long after that, that she left us, but I still remember the way I felt. I still suffer from some of her mistreatment, today.

The cause is more important than the symptoms.

If you are in a leadership position, focus on causes and you’ll solve many problems.