He said to me, "Do you even remember how we started talking and became friends?" And then he continued to remind me. And then, not only did I remember exactly how we met, but also how far a simple act of kindness can go in a person's life. I was only doing what someone had done to me years before—paying it forward.
It was one normal evening on a Wednesday when I was on my way back from church. I was in my first year at the university. And as usual, it wasn't so easy to get transportation the darker it got. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't enough to take me back to the hostel on campus, where I resided. So I was practically stranded, with no cab or bike to take me home and no money to even afford the fare.
Soon enough, a cab stopped near me. And then a lady called my attention as she was heading towards it, while I only stood there perplexed, and she said to me, "Olujay, you're going to the hostel, aren't you?" I responded affirmatively. "Oya, let's quickly go. I'll pay." She continued. Taken aback by what was happening in that moment, I had to snap out of being stunned and hop into the vehicle before, you know, it was too late and I went back to square one.
We had known each other before that night, and that was how we knew our names. "Hey! Hi!" That was all we really ever said to ourselves prior, as we never engaged in real conversations to deem ourselves friends. I was in the mechatronics department, and she was in the mathematics department—two departments far from each other by classrooms and courses of study. However, that singular act of kindness brought us a little closer.
I was shocked by what she had done. It was very odd and uncommon, as everyone likes to mind their business where we're from. The transport fare was only ₦50, which was really small then and even almost obsolete now. The time, place, and manner of kindness were heartwarming. I will never forget.
Fast-forward to many years later. It was a warm Sunday morning, tending towards noon, and I was just returning from church with my pal. We arrived at the main junction to take a cab back home, and we walked a little while from where the previous cab we alighted from dropped us.
On our way to the next cab, we met this young man. We knew he was just coming from the same church and that he was a vocalist in the same choir my pal and I played guitar for, and so we stopped to greet him. As per guy to guy, we handshaked in a very "guyish" way, smiled at ourselves, and then I asked what he was waiting at the junction for.
He said he was waiting for his friends so he could finally be able to get home, as he didn't have money at that moment. I could tell that he was only hoping his friends would show up or something, so I just asked him if he didn't mind if I paid for his bike fare home. He agreed, and I paid $200 to the bike man who was going to take him home. And that was how he got home after waiting so long at that junction, because he had already gotten there way earlier than we did.
It was something that my pal and I were actually used to: being generous and kind to people around us, although I mostly saw my pal do it more occasionally. Years later, this guy that we had been kind to turned into a really good friend. And then recently, he reminded me of how we actually met and became close, providing more insight on how he got stranded that day.
It turned out that he had been betrayed by his friends that day. They had this kind of pact where anyone paid for everyone's transport fare that day, and then it would be a different person's turn the next time. He had spent all morning trying to get to church with his friends, only to find them leaving him at church stranded. And so what we did for him meant so much. To us, on the other side, we were just being us.
In my mind, I remembered just how it was to be stranded right there in that wide, open space at the junction. The very same junction that I had been helped at years ago. And so I was just paying it forward, even though I didn't think of it as so in that moment.
In a voice note that he sent to me, explaining it all, I was reminded of how far a simple act of kindness can go in a person's life, just as it did mine.
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https://x.com/_olujay/status/1780694010757349822 All images belong to me Posted Using InLeo Alpha