When I was in Junior high, I was the Girls prefect for my school and class prefect aside that. I wielded so much authority but at one point I abused it, oh! Not in the way you think. And the lesson I learnt from it is one that has been with me since that day. I’m not sure even a memory loss would make me forget.
So the thing with power is that you would have to be very strong for it not to change you or take control over your morals or even worse, your whole self. I know they say power doesn’t change people, it only brings out their true colours but trust me, I turned into a whole different person. I could barely recognize myself and as I said I was far gone to see all of that.
As the Girls prefect, I had people at my beck and call. All I had to do was just to say and it would be done. And as a teen, it felt good to be able to command my friends to do whatever I wanted them to do. Of course, I had followers and those were people who didn’t want to get into trouble with me. The last thing anyone wanted was to get into an issue with me because that would mean the beginning of their nightmares on campus.
Thankfully, there were people who stood for the right things and that included my brother. My brother never succumbed to my unfair display of power. I think he was the only one who realized I became a different person after getting into office. We were so close before everything but we kind of drifted apart after sometime of becoming a prefect.
Anytime he stood up against me, I made sure to retaliate back so hard that most times he got into trouble as a house prefect himself. I know you’re probably looking at me somehow and I get it. For a while, my brother never really minded me both in school and at home. I was so hurt but at that point, I didn’t care that I was losing the one best friend I had.
There was this particular day, I was having a good day as usual until I wasn’t. Suddenly from nowhere, I fell ill. Yeah, just like that. I broke down in class. I couldn’t walk. I was shivering under a very hot weather. At that point, none of my subordinates or “followers” even paid attention to me. It was that one person that I was always giving troubles; my brother, who rushed to find out what was wrong. He ran to our class teacher and she had to order a ride for us home.
My brother held hand throughout the journey home with my head on his laps. I couldn’t stop crying on the way not because of what was happening to me but because of the realization that family will always be family no matter what. I had been abusing my power all that while and been fighting people including my brother but he forgot about everything and ran to me when he saw me in that state.
You’re probably thinking, I learned not to abuse power, yeah I did. But the real gem was family will always be family. It should always be family first. Because at that point where everyone is throwing weapons at you, the world is judging you, or you feel so helpless, the one group of people that will always be there for you is family. The best you can do is to be your nice to them whenever you can.
Image is mine
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