(Continuation)
Rather she turned left and headed towards Convo Park. I was confused and disappointed at the same time. I guess I was more disappointed than confused. At least if she had come to CBN Hall, I would have more than a thousand reasons to start a conversation. But Convo Park?? What to the hilt was I going to say to her over there? That I was the SUG President?? Or that I'm not exactly the guy that spontaneously decides to be stimulated by a girl’s miraculous appearance on a miserable Wednesday morning?? Seriously, I was dumb. But I was determined to just walk over and start talking to this girl. I started walking towards her.
By now she was sitting on one of those platforms. Mehn....I swear I haven’t done this before. At least the first time I wanted to try this was about 8 years ago. I was in JSS2 then. That's a story for another day. This was new.
All this while, I never had anything ill in mind. I wasn't going over to ask her to sleep with me. Neither was I going over to ask her to be my girlfriend. It hasn't come to that yet. All I wanted to do was to go and talk to this girl. The desire of a harmless African man with intentions pure as his heart was. I guess this alone gave me gallantry enough to push forward.
I made some few steps forward and I realized I was in front of this creature that held my appeal. She looked up at me. I peered at her too. Remarkably, I realised I had over-estimated how pretty she was. I admitted inside me that she wasn't exactly the definition of perfect beauty but within microseconds I also conceded that appeal alone wasn't entirely an important race.
Now right before her, I felt tongue tied, I opened my mouth.
''Good morning'', I said in my laziest of voices. The last thing I wanted to admit was my degree of enthusiasm right there.
''What did you say??'', she asked looking at me quizzically. That look was exactly the one my mum gives me when she doesn't want my wish granted. I was beginning to smell ill-luck in the air.
''Why are you giving me that look ?''
'' How?'', she asked.
'' . . . like i'm some kind of alien or something''
She suddenly became dumb.
'' Is this how you treat people you meet for the first time??'’, I asked frantically.
She ignored me.
She didn’t just ignore me. She looked in the opposite direction. And she didn't look like she was going to reply me. And in milliseconds too- the enthusiasm changed to a huge disappointment. Obviously, if I knew this was going to happen, I would have thought twice about this huge catastrophe.
'' Or are you dumb??'' I asked in a hysterical effort to make her feel bad.
I stood up, heaved a sigh of relief and walked away quietly. And as I took apologetic steps away from the scene, I felt worse than I had actually been in ages. I felt like a repentant sinner. A sinner who vowed never to eat the forbidden fruit again.
But wait!!! There was more.
Yes!!! I felt rejected and unwanted by someone I admired. But for a moment I looked on the brighter side- this was a complete stranger. She knows nothing about me save that I was some excited guy on a cherry little ride on the roller coaster of his ego. The little she knew was that I wore a yellow shirt and a slim black jean. That was all.
And then I learnt hard lessons. Being rejected does not necessarily mean you are irrelevant. The essence of rejection is to make you feel less important and less worthy. But if you know your true worth, handling rejection would be as easy as it comes. Deep inside me, I knew she wasn't wrong to do what she did. Nobody really knows anyone these days. I understood. If only she knew- perhaps she would have acted differently. There is no point trying to ridicule or put up a fight with people who reject you. Sometimes it’s better to excuse their ignorance momentarily. And it’s best not to blame them for anything.
So guys, next time you make that move on that UniUyo chic and she doesn’t act like she knows how to write her name correctly, the odds are still in your favour. Look at the brighter side- don’t beef her just yet. Now because of one single rejection, I’ve got a story to tell. And that are reading it up to this point means a lot to me.
You see??
By Ema Matata (@EmaMatata)
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