Skip to main content

YOU THINK THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM?

 



Akan had walked under the scorching sun from NEPA LINE down to AKA ROAD by UBA bank that hot Monday afternoon  in search of a job.  A first class graduate from Akwa Ibom State  University that studied Mass Communication, after graduating  had been frustrated with lack of jobs in the state.

With no connection to boast of, every attempt to secure a job by Akan was like heading towards a dead end.

From one office to the other, stories of "sorry! We don't have vacancies" was what Akan got as a reply.

For five years after graduation,  Akan has been walking the street of Uyo and other places he was told to go  and nothing was left of the sole of his cover shoe.

After due consideration and several unsuccessful attempts to secure a job, Akan made up his mind to make do with any available funds to start up a business.

The best business he thought of was a Photography business since he had had a pre-knowlegde of photography back in school.

Akan thought of the best location to set up his business so as to have better patronage.

After doing proper feasibility study of his business, Akan decided to take his photography studio to the bee hive of human activities, Abak road just by Uyo Plaza.

He got his business started and within about two weeks,  clients started patronizing his photography studio.

On some occasions family will visit to take a family photographs and have what to call memories, and other times individuals,  or friends  will trip in for memories  too.

Akan was the boss here. He wasn't walking up and down looking for who to boss him around.  He was a fulfilled person who derived joy in helping people create the best memories of themselves.

Next to Akan's photography studio was a funeral home.  Akan in his small studio creating fond memories of others and the funeral home next door robbing people off memories.

On a Sunday evening, a wealthy old man who Akan later got to know as Dr. Brown visited his  studio with his two sons and three daughters to take a family photography. Setting up his equipment, Akan asked them to wait and the family waited patiently.

He  asked the old man to sit on the sofa with his first son and the last daughter,  while the rest stood behind, and the wealthy man and his family did according to how they were instructed.

He took shots of them, adjusting the family during the photo session to give the best memories.
 
Afterwas he got paid for the service rendered and asked the family to come for framed picture the next evening when it was ready.

******

The following morning, Akan was already in his office tidying up some jobs that owners would have picked up that morning when he had a knock on the door.

He opened the door only to meet the family of Dr. Brown,  the wealthy man with teary eyes.

He enquired to know what was wrong and he was told that the wealthy man had passed away while in his sleep.

The family told him they came to make arrangements for his burial with the funeral home and they thank him for creating one last memory of their father.

Akan stood there motionless with a broken heart. He never thought that such a healthy and wealthy man was to passed away that night.

He was worried that he wasn't wealthy and lack job but a wealthy man with money and good health had kicked the bucket the previous night.

NOTE:

Life goes off like a candle.

Create fond memories of you while walking alive for it may be the last thing it is remembered of you.

Live a life of purpose by affecting people around you positively.

Life is shorter than what we think.

****inspire by Sizwe Banzi Is Dead by Athol Fugard******

✍ Patrick Ekong

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DON'T LEAVE WHEN IT IS TOO LATE.

The story . Udauk was too weak to continue with the evening chores around the house because of her pregnancy. She bent over the kitchen cabinet in search of a tuber of yam she was to prepare before her husband returned from work. At the point of stretching her hands to reach the tuber of yam under the cabin, she felt a sharp pain down her abdomen. Her left lap was swollen from the beating she got the previous night from the monster's husband. She was still short of three months from her due month. That's when she was to put to birth. The shape pain was accompanied by a loud scream. She dropped the knife she had with her and tried to settle on a table-size stool lying close to the gas cylinder in the kitchen, but she couldn't. She fell and started screaming, reached out to her phone, and dialed her husband. Mr. Sam had branched  Madam G's Native Kitchen to settle for a while before heading home as his habit demands. He was busy at his usual joint with a bottle of chill ...
Social Media: Are we swallowed by it? It is alarming yet no longer news the rate of social media usage since the turn of the millennium. Social Media has become a tool in nearly every 9/ 10 persons we meet everyday of our lives. In fact it is estimated that youth particularly engaged in social Media taking 8/9 hours a day out of the 24hrs. Without doubt, social media has come to enhance and add more meaning to our daily life. Since the advent of social media in the early part of the millennium, the rate people get involve in these wonderful platforms keep increasing on a daily basis. To some youth and some fraction of older people, social media is like oxygen. They can't stay a moment without. A lady once said that she can't stay without visiting her Facebook page in a day. With the number of people flooding the Social media on per second basis, one will wonder if these technology has any bad effect at all. Millions of people use social media as it is the trend now, ...

TILL DEATH DO US APART

 The story.  She wanted to fix this once and for all. She felt it was her obligation and responsibility to try and fix her marriage. It is true that when love can no longer sustain the marriage, commitment,  and sense of responsibility does. This was Elma's concern. Though things were never what she expected, especially after having an affair with her personal assistant, she felt she could rekindle the love and bring her home. Shutting the door of the penthouse behind Mark her boyfriend, Elma warned him never to call again, not when she was trying to fix her home and get back with her husband. After Mark drove off, Elma took a step backward from where she was, fell on the bed and sobbed profusely. It was hard for her to see him leave. In the past six months of knowing Mark, he made her feel loved again and provided her a shoulder to cry on. He made her forget the horrors George her husband made her pass through in the last three years.  Elma left the penthouse that n...