The little girl strutted confidently to the blackboard and returned back shivering to her seat, which she found a marathon away from the board. Forty students blazed their devilish eighty eyes that omitted toxic rays targeting her. Stuck she sat, shivering and sweating.
She sniffed death stalking her sure to snatch her shortly. When she took a step ahead she was fidgeting. She felt ashamed as though she were standing naked. She missed steps and felt her bones disintegrating. A flood of sweat coursed down her spine.
Bitter words from the less careful male teacher “domestic chores not laurels await you like your likes meant for breeding” remained itched on her mind. These words changed the equations in the calculus of her mentality.
Lily buried her head under the table. Her tears trickled down to the floor to make a little pool. That was an indication of a muffled sobbing emanating from a covert injury. The words “like your likes” made the class roar up with laughter. The laughter was a cacophonous one.
The embarrassed little girl became panicky .She reflected how the classroom, packed by naughty boys and chatty girls, looked like a furnace under a roof. Months back her younger and closer classmate had dropped out with a bun in the oven. This friend of hers was the younger and married student in the class. The mathematics teacher careless remark ruined the Lily’s dream, trampled on her moral and made her lonely in class.
Lily wished the ground to get off her feet to bury her alive when she noticed the class of students rising their hands to solve the equation that she failed to solve. The situation somehow proved Lily’s stupidity to the teacher. She cursed and blamed herself. She became ashamed of her arms raised in haste to solve the equation.
The society, neighbors and parents brought her up hiding her from both adversity and happiness. Human preys are sometimes easily created by the community. Lily left the class last. She went home one hour late. The five minute normal walk didn’t end easily. The words “domestic chores not laurels awaits you likes” off again and on again worried her too much.
The teacher’s word seized her thoughts; she stopped thinking she will last long. A desperate wind chilled her ephemeral being. The first time she thought education as something meaningless, her little heart cringed. Fear, doubt and disbelief dominated her turn by turn.
Some students’ hopes go up in smoke, while that of others gets banished. Still few students’ vision lays waste. That is why in schools a mentor is needed, not a discouraging one. S/he who instills beautiful words in children’s mind cures the nation. The ones who feed hope not desperation are needed.
Lily arrived home shivering. She hid herself in bed. She told family members to leave her alone for a while. Had she not missed the equation and have a friend that dropped out to tend a baby, things would have been normal. No one would have laughed at her. She blamed her dropped out friend much, then her raised hands.
She spent the night crying. No one came to her room to sooth her. Her aunt ignored her sobbing. She woke up in the morning hungry. It was for a while she told them to live her alone, but they disappeared for full nights. She missed her parents. Fatigue set in. Her legs became shaky. Fear nestled in the pit of her stomach. To add an insult to injury, the drudge of domestic work was another burden.
She resumed school after days. Her classmates estranged her. Their murmuring aimed at targeting and embarrassing her. Lily promised two things for herself- cutting an air of ignorance and recoiling into the shell of silence. She often murmured when she left her home every morning.” The person I want to be is coming, not gone!” she reiterated.
Her parents and relatives ignored her because of the extended family they support. She felt lonely, a condition she found worse than poverty. She lately understood that only her grandmama continued to be close to her.
“Giving birth is incorrect” Lily off hand said to her grandmother one night. People who rather give birth are the luckiest ones. But consultation is good” was the response of her grandmother. In folklore she was lectured more about the perks of procreation by neighbors, relatives etc. Though her grandmamma was an uneducated person she proved sagacious As such, she made the little girl not to be worried and advised her to keep on fighting
A college student in the neighborhood who was embraced in the campaign Women –extending-help-to women started helping Lily out in her studies especially in Maths and English. As the saying goes “if there is the will there is a way” Lily’s Mathematics skill picked up in no time.” I didn’t know women could be smart in Maths!”Lily said “They could be the best if they plow on!” the college girl replied.
On the front page of her mathematics book Lily wrote the words “every student could fail to solve a challenging problem. But what matters most is mending one’s ways and saying never die.” The other day she wrote “I am a girl out to actualize her dream!” On the morrow she wrote “I am close to my dream, and after weekends she wrote “I am on the back of the driver seat,”
Lily began speaking out in front of students after numerous weeks of shivering gone, “Only time corrects you!” She headed to her seat; only few students got her idea. After a while the mathematics teachers came to class. Right away she got up from her seat. The teacher looked her confused.
“I am afraid the problem you solved yesterday was wrong because you missed a key step. The answer is positive five over two,” Lily said full throated. Taken aback the male chauvinist teacher remembered that he told them the answer to be only two. Without the teacher’s good will she headed to the blackboard and began solving the problem. She solved it with ease.
“Bravo the domestic chore burdened a stay-at- home mom,” giggled a backbencher naughty boy! A stay-at-home mom had long become her new nickname after hurled out from the irresponsible teacher, but luckily she had stopped heeding silly utterances. She saw the student with a sarcastic smile. “Henceforth never give up,” her grand mama taught her wisely.
“All of you are my classmates, don’t forget one thing in your life, I’m capable to be a scientist and even a president of this country! One day my dream will be realized,” Lily shook a closed fist. The students roared up with laughter not forgetting the turn of events. No more diffident she walked to her seat with a square shoulder with a sense of vengeance.,
Lily a new, beautiful and charming girl continued learning with a sunny face. The math teacher found himself struggling to begin the day’s class. Gradually the time flew by. The teacher refused to teach in the same class the coming year. Lily became smart in math to the extent of helping out her classmates. She became the most sought-after girl in school. Soon, the students forgot her nick name which was disturbing her itched on her memory.
Before answering any question Lily made a point telling her dream “Do you know my dream is being somebody– a scientist, a politician or a president of this country!,” The students became accustomed to the ambitious vision. She continued this habit after she joined the university with flying colors. No one saw her with a raised brow leave alone laughing at her. Lately she understood that when one becomes a brilliant student many depend on him/her. Students never mock such lofty wishes.
Political science is not a hard science than math. But it shares commonalities with it .Say in solving , equations and handling variables and logarithms that changed their colors and forms.
Lily studied the art of becoming a successful woman. She turned an orator and sociable student to lead the students’ council. She imbibed a political seduction technique, a key ingredient in the dynamics of political election. This approach made her to know key political persons to go up the power ladder, and brush aside powerful men from her way.
There is no free lunch in this universe and no free step to success. Life made her to fight a lot of men politicians in different positions. Almost all men became her seducers first, then they stood against her. Only a few concurred in idea with her.
When she met powerful men, she hypnotized all of them by social skills and oratory. Sometimes education alone cannot lead one to realize his dream. It needs techniques. When one wants to pluck a planted wood, one has to pull it back and push it forward, and then to the left and to the right. After these actions plucking it is easy. This approach works in any position of life, especially the harrowing lanes to success are full of hurdles, steeplechase and painful.
Once, Lily paid a surprising visit to her primary school to talk to her former mathematics teacher. Unfortunately the teacher was transferred to a remote school.
“Wherever he may be, he knows my dream has turned true. But I want to tell him so in person.” she whispered for herself and kept on looking the old school. She was not in a retaliatory mood. She wished to make a speech about success to his students.
“Not all things are told to everybody! Even for husband even for wife! But I will tell you one thing!”
“Please… honorable students council president,” the school’s mini media journalist who heard about her approached her for interview..
“
“Sorry honorable president! So what is that secrete of your success?”
“Pain” she smiled. The journalist became confused by her explanation.
“Sorry? The Honorable! I didn’t get your point! “
“Have you experienced a real pain?”
“Itch, pinch and bite were the driving forces behind my success!” Lily responded again with a sunny face.
The journalist gazed at her scornfully for her smile plus the strange words, she reciprocated in kind. Another boy taking a shot with his smart phone became baffled.
Her aunt’s pinching made her rebellious. Itching poverty and society’s wrong perception to women, especially when it comes to little girls made her wary. So this kind of physiological bite compelled resilient Lily to fight back resolutely, struggle and defeat thoughts which tie down women to actualize their own dream.
Finally reaching a consensus they interviewee and interviewer parted!
BY DESALEGN DAGNEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 22 JULY 2023
