6 Years Ago, This Person Embarrassed me…

Hi friends! How is life? I hope all is going as planned! If not, I hope everything falls back into place soon. Me? It’s a Sunday, so I am chilling because next week of work is about to get serious. Today, I want to talk about a situation that happened to me around 2015/2016 that I never disclosed to anyone. I’m also pretty sure that those who witnessed the situation have most probably forgotten it ever happened.

Background

It was eighth grade. I wasn’t the politest kid in class but I wasn’t the worst either. I would throw a joke here and there, and sometimes my classmates would laugh about it. Come on don’t frown, that doesn’t make me an annoying kid. We’ve all pretty much thought of a joke while the teacher was speaking, but I occasionally let them out. Nevertheless, I had a teacher, whom I won’t disclose any of their identity, who was a little bit straightforward. I will call this teacher X for the sake of this purpose. X sometimes didn’t have a filter. 😊

The situation

I don’t know how this conversation started in class; X was asking us (eighth graders) what our purpose in life is… Do you know the age when all boys want to become football players? And the girls want to be some popstar or singer? Apologies for the generalization, but the point is no one had figured out their purpose in life back then. Who figures out their absolute purpose in life anyway? It changes based on millions of factors. Some of my friends answered for the money, the fame, to make the nation proud, and to benefit their communities and the ones around them. Respectable. When it came to my turn, this happened…

X: “Ahmad, what is your answer to this question?”

Ahmad: “I want to make my parents proud.”

I was very shy about it since it wasn’t the stereotypical answer that X was looking for. X let out a loud laugh. A laugh. Then…

XYZ: “Your parents?”

Then to the whole class…

XYZ: “Guys, he said that he wants to make his parents proud and that this is what motivates him to do better”

Then, XYZ laughed, and the whole class followed and laughed. At the moment, I didn’t see anything wrong with what I said. I still don’t see what was laughable about that, 6 years later.

The aftermath

I never forgot this situation. It’s been almost 6 years and I remember it by word. Since it’s now on my website, it will be on the internet forever (even if I take down the website, people can see it using the Wayback machine). For me, I never saw having the sole purpose of making someone so dear to my heart proud as a wrong thing. Those people I wanted to make proud worked their socks off daily for years just so I can be who I am today. Of course, this cannot be the sole purpose, but it is a very big one. I believe that working with this purpose in mind has gotten me as far as I’d love in life, until now. I shall continue believing in it.

To whoever is reading this

Don’t let people determine fundamental things in your life. I am sure that your beliefs are not laughable; they are valid. Keep doing what you do. Also, I hope you realize the power of words. Your words can shape someone’s life even if you do not mean it. So, just be kind.

To X

I forgive you. Just don’t do it again for the sake of other people. Who knows how someone else might’ve taken your words? In my case, I felt that since it was a laughable purpose for you; it is a valid purpose for me. I doubt you’ll ever read this but have a lovely day.

Anyways, I made this read long enough, let’s leave it here. 🙂 If you want to talk more with me, it would be my absolute pleasure! Shoot me an email or reach out to me on social media. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list so you can get notified whenever I post! See you next time and have a lovely day. <3