While I was growing up, my father did his best in giving my siblings and I memorable childhood experiences. He wasn't privileged to acquire formal education but he vowed that his children would acquire everything that he could not acquire.
I remember a day that someone wrote him a letter and he asked me to read and interpret for him. I was in secondary school then. After reading the letter for him, he couldn't hide his happiness and fulfillment. He turned to me and said;
"I thank God that the education that I envied while growing up is now being given to you, my children. With the life I am living now, I have made more progress than that of my father and I am sure that you are in the path of greater success than me. Your children shall be greater than you. That's how we will keep living behind a generation that is fairing better."
I can never forget these words from my father.
A few years later, I was asked to stay with my maternal grandfather who lost his wife (my grandmother).
Upon my arrival, I met my uncle who had been staying with his parents. The death of his mother hit him greatly and he decided to relocate to Lagos in order to heal from the shock.
In the few weeks that we spent together, I noticed that the majority of my peers in the community had bicycles. I immediately craved one.
When he was finally leaving for Lagos, I begged him to send me money to buy a bicycle when he arrived in Lagos. He left a farm behind that needed constant maintenance. He told me to maintain the farm in his absence. He promised to buy the bicycle for me when he returns to sell the produce of the farm.
Disappointedly, my uncle sent his younger sister to come and sell the farm produce when it was time. When I asked her if there was an instruction from my uncle to buy a bicycle for me from the money made from the sales of the farm produce, she told me that my uncle didn't give her such an instruction. I was heartbroken but there was nothing I could do. I moved on.
I later shifted my attention to my father. Whenever he visited my grandfather and I, I asked him to buy me a bicycle. He would plead with me to give him more time because his priority was to give us a good education.
"Don't worry, whatever I can't afford for you to enjoy your childhood, you will purchase something better for your children in the future," said my father on one of the days that I disturbed him to purchase the bicycle.
He could not purchase the bicycle for me. I grew over the quest and my attention was on my academics. I was in the university when he died.
Whenever I am sitting quietly, reflecting on the good time that we shared, his level of optimism about my future rings in my head.
Many years later, I got married and my wife and I welcomed our son. I was on a mission to visit a friend when a bicycle stand caught my attention. I loved what I saw and I immediately stopped to check the bicycles on display. I had a discussion with the dealer and I purchased one.
My son is only 18 months but I am glad that he will grow up to meet a bicycle. Presently, he still plays around with his baby walker, something that I never used as a child too.
The cost of the bicycle might be insignificant but the value it holds for me is huge. Whenever I see my son and sight the bicycle, my experience with my father is the third thing that comes to my mind. His words are manifesting.
Just like he lived a better life than his father, I am presently living better than my father did at my age and here is my son living his childhood far better than how I lived mine at his age.
This is progress no matter how little.
I am optimistic that his son will have a better experience in future.
This bicycle is a symbol of generational growth for me.
The image is mine