LOSING YOURSELF
And at that instant I realized I had lost the real me.
The person I was, was long gone and I couldn’t recognize
the person in the mirror. It all happened so fast, I had just graduated from
secondary school with an overall excellent result and dad was the proudest
father on planet Earth. Dad said I could ask for anything I wanted but that
wasn’t going to be easy considering there were so many things I wanted so I
asked to be surprised and I was. Dad had bought me a smartphone not just any
smartphone but the coolest of them. I was amazed; I quickly switched my chip
from my now old and ugly phone to the new one. I really can’t remember what became
of my old phone.
My new phone became my best friend, I would be in my
room all day with my phone, I was on every social media that ever existed and I
downloaded every application that was in vogue. Gradually, I started pulling
away from my actual friends, my siblings complained that I never hangout with
them and that I rarely did chores anymore. Mum and Dad complained too but I
didn’t care because I was happy in my own world well at least that was what I
thought.
Seven months later my phone was stolen, it was like an
important part of me had just been stolen, I was traumatized and I locked
myself up in my room for days. I felt lonely, I reached out to my friends but
they had moved on and my siblings, well they had adapted to a life without me.
It hurt so much, in just seven months I had lost my so called smartphone, my
friends and my siblings.
Someone once said you never cherish what you have got
until you lose it. The world has developed and man has evolved yet every step
forward moves us ten steps backwards. We are gradually losing sight of the
things that really matter; we are beginning to replace the valuable things with
the worthless things of life. Technology is advancement, development, growth
it’s meant to make life easier for man not take away life from man. We need
technology, we need to keep up with the world but the world is constantly
changing, in the meantime family and friends will always be there, they make us
who we are and they form a real part of
our lives.
We need to realize that there is a thin line between
things and people and if we are not careful, we could misplace our priorities.
People and relationships form part of our basic necessities and just like in
the Bible, man wasn’t created to be alone. So let’s take time to reflect, when
finally we get to that point in life when we lose our memory, when are hair
turns grey and our teeth can no longer chew, only our loved ones and the
relationships we have built during our life’s journey can keep us going. Losing
our loved ones to the not so important things of life while we can still create
wonderful memories with them will cost us so much more when we no longer can.
The things of this world are beautiful and we ought to
enjoy them but let’s not miss out on the priceless gifts of life while enjoying
the material things.
Written
by: Onyinye Mbata
