LIFE IS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AND NOT JUST ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE
This short story is about four different people. A lady and three young men. All of them are in their prime age, just in their mid-twenties and late-twenties. They all graduated from the same university and are posted to do their NYSC program in different states in Nigeria. They all are hoping that after the NYSC program, they will secure a good job and the next thing will be to get married and have a joy-filled and happy home. Therefore the bothering issue in their hearts presently is: "Who will I marry?"
The lady at the center of this story, happened to be a very beautiful, attractive and charming personality. She is also very brilliant. The three young men on the other hand, have diverse privileges. One is from a very wealthy family, the father is a big time businessman and the mother a contractor. The second one came from the elitist family group, the father is a politician and the mother a working class in the federal government civil service. But the third one came from just a middle class group in the society. The father is a teacher in the secondary school, in fact he taught this lady in the center of this story in her senior classes and was instrumental to her good grades in her science subjects: Physis, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics, which formed the core subjects for the course she studied.
Ironically, though these three young men are far apart, and the lady also in a different location from the three young men, and none had ever seen each other since they left school, only communication on phone calls, Facebook and Whatsapp, and the issue of intimate relationship or marriage had not been part of discussions among them all. Just about a month to the end of their NYSC service year, it is as if four of them began to think on the same matter. "I will get married very soon, but who will I marry?" There are a lot of mysteries in this life, that human minds can not explain. Why do I said this? The mind of this lady went to these three young men and the minds of the three young men went to this same lady. You know, none of them communicated this issue of marriage with each other all the while since they left school, but this time around, they are individually nursing the matter in their individual minds and thinking of what steps to take.
Now, here is one of the mystery, the lady at the center of this story asked herself a question: "How do I know these three young men, who they really are?" Can we say here that she used what can be called extrasensory messaging to ask the three young men for their proposal to her, with a message? This will help her to evaluate them on individual basis. Remember, there were no communication about issue of marriage among them before this time, but coincidentally, in the same week, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, she got Whatsapp messages from the three young men, centered on the same issue all tilted: "Marriage Proposal ". But the message content were all different from each other:
The first was the son of the businessman, he spoke how much he loved the lady, how he admired her beauty and how those beautiful appearance attracted him to her. He spoke how he will use his father's wealth to take good care of her and buy anything she wishes, and how his father promised to give him and the wife he will marry enough money to establish in whatever they wished to venture into, either in the field of their studies or businesses like his father, being his father's only son, if only she can agree to marry him. He sent pictures of shoes and clothes he has bought already for her teasing her and trying to cajole on how he know her size in wares, her by mentioning the size of the shoes and clothes he bought, to her surprises, the sizes are her accurate sizes of shoes and clothes. He requested from her on how he can get them across to her.
The lady was still illuminating on what do, has God answered her prayers already? But confusion set in the following morning as the first message she got was from the second young man, the son of the elitist, the politician. The message was on the same issue, with the same title, but a different message content. The second young man spoke so much on how he has been having sleepless nights thinking about this lady. He said he is so worried about loosing her to other men, that sometimes he loses appetite for food. He said that her beauty and attractiveness made his body longing just to be with her. He sent her list of attractive job opportunities lining up for him to choose from, offered to him by his father, once he finished his NYSC program. He said he will not even wait for a month to be engaged with a lucrative and attractive job of his choice and that he will allow her to make her choice from the lists also if only she will agree to marry him.
After going through the message, she became more confused, in fact she began to question God for bringing such good opportunities her way at the same time. She was in this confused state of mind when she slept off in the night, without even having her normal night prayers, only to wake up the next day at 6:00am, just the time of her morning devotion. As she was about to start her devotional, she heard the sound of a message entrance notification on her phone, and she said to herself, "hope this message will not bring me more trouble?" She decided to leave the message and have her prayers first and even pray about the previous messages and also pray that God should not allow the message she just received to cause her more confusion. After her prayers, she sensed a kind of joy flowing within her heart, that she finds it difficult to explain. But as she picked her phone to access the messages in the phone, it was just only one message she had this morning, quite unlike before, that she used to have up to four to five messages or even more. And guess, the message was from who? The third young man, the son of the teacher, the teacher who taught her in her senior classes in her secondary school days. As she opened to read the message, she was baffled and nearly collapsed as she saw that the title of the message is: "MARRIAGE PROPOSAL", this time around everything is written in capital letters, but it is still the same title and on the same issue she has been battling since two days ago. She just decided to compose herself to read the content of the message.
The third young man, began by asking her about her welfare and telling her how he used to feel a kind of peace, joy and satisfaction in his mind, whenever he thinks about her. That most of the time he will just slept off, thinking about her, only to wake up the following day feeling better. It just occurred to her that while she was in the confused state of mind yesterday night as a result of the two previous messages from the other two young men, a flash of though about this third young man entered her mind and she never remembered any other thing she thought about before she slept off.
The young man continued, and said that he now began to think that she must be his missing better-half. He also told her how her behaviors, her character and without exception her beauty drew him to herself like a magnet pulls iron to itself. He emphasized that her inner personality traits endeared him to her much more than her outward perfection of beauty, nevertheless, he admired her God given craftsmanship in her physical appearance, but praised God more on the quality of characters she is endowed with, which includes: humility, gentleness, sanctity, hardworking to mention just a few.
She was surprised to see the picture of herself attached in the message, but never remember when she took that particular photo. Did the young man secretly took her a photo when they were in school? But looking closely at the image, she did not remember at anytime she ever bought the clothe she wore in the picture, but she loved the clothes and said she will look for the stuff and buy it. But as she saw an under-note beneath the picture and tried to read, she can not believe what happened. But she must believe it, because there is no other way to explain it than just what is written. It reads: "I have not been a good artist, I am not good in drawing either, but this is just my little attempt to create an image of the one I love so dearly from my mind's eye. Is this your image? I hope with the help of God, we both can build a better tomorrow for ourselves and our children, if you will consider me as your life partner.
I said to myself, but this is my real image. This person knows me inside and outside. He can draw the images of my inner personality traits and my physical structure so vividly. He talks about partnership to have a better tomorrow for both of us, but the first suitor talked about his father's wealth to give me a better tomorrow, while the second suitor talked about his father's position to give me a better tomorrow. This first suitor, everything is ok now, but will he not make me one of the properties he bought with his father's wealth in future? The second suitor, there are good prospects presently, notwithstanding, will he not think his father's position made me who I became in future? But, this last suitor, there is nothing visible anyone can depend upon in this hard time, should I hang my hopes on fate for a better tomorrow?
Please, I need your advice. Who shall I choose among these three young men? Do I choose a better tomorrow hanging on a father's wealth, or a better tomorrow hanging on a father's position which I can see presently or a hope of a better tomorrow hanging on fate and divine providence?
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