13: ONCE UPON A BULLY

Hello again! I hope you missed me! Well I want to assure you that Idiare Jones Diary is back with a bang. I pray I will be able to give you more valuable written material in the coming year as interestingly I’ve never been more swamped by work as I am now. By the way, the presentation I spoke of in Volume 12 was to MTN and by God’s grace we won. This has meant more work for me but by His grace I will more than cope.

The results of the essay competition are in. We had four entries with one of them being a valiant first attempt by Kingsley Ebruke to spin out an essay while trying not to fall asleep! He promised to send another entry but I guess he couldn’t, his ‘sleepy effort’ forms part of the four entries. I also got an essay from Charles Oyibo, Ayo Akinwale and Dupe Adeolu. I must salute their courage for sending them; they have obviously conquered the fear most people have of opening their work for public scrutiny and also making out time from their busy schedules. They are all winners in my book.

The selection criteria set for the essay was that it must be simple (use of everyday language), clear (consistent message) and original (No plagiarism!), the first and second were more critical to the choice of winners. Dupe Adeolu produced the write up that I believe most clearly answers the set criteria.. She gets as her prize a brand new copy of “The Note” by Angela Hunt. Ayo akinwale came a close second and gets “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as his prize and Charles Oyibo came third with a very interesting write up, he will get his prize in December. I’m sure Kingsley Ebruke would have given them all a run for their money if he had fulfilled his promise to re-write…his essay had the most colorful character sketch of a bully I’ve ever seen!. He gets “The 21 Indispensable qualities of a Leader by John Maxwell” for participating.

Produced below is Dupe’s winning entry. Her moral high ground response to the bullies is a clear example of how to refuse to let your river become poisoned. Enjoy it as Volume 13. Responses will be welcomed. God bless.


ONCE UPON A BULLY

It was a cold rainy day and I was on my way back home from Church. We had a Christmas Cantata coming up and I had been chosen to act the part of the drummer boy who played for Jesus.

Getting the role itself was a miracle for this shy and quiet 12year old, while playing the part was better than I ever imagined. No wonder there was so much envy from all the other girls and not to mention the boys who despised the idea of a girl playing 'the drummer boy'.

I was still replaying the events of the day and thinking about how popular I was going to be after the whole show when someone bumped into me from behind, I tripped and fell flat on my face and was shocked to hear the laughter of about four kids behind me.

I tried to pick myself up in as dignified a manner as I thought possible, only to be tripped again, this time with more laughter from the kids. My mind was reeling with foul words that I could use on those nasty kids from the pits of hell, how did they ever find the four walls of a church in the first place?

But right there and then, I carefully stood to my feet and faced those bullies; I looked into their faces one by one. They noticed my calm and stopped laughing. I stared at them one after the other with no sign of anger or remorse in my _expression, just a sad, pitying look, wondering how kids with good parents and who came for Bible study every week could still turn out to be so rude and manner less.

They got uncomfortable when I didn't curse or kick back and they just walked away one after the other, one even said he was sorry. I had spoiled their fun. They wanted to see me fight and shout back so they could tell every other person I was just a nasty snub after all.

Well I didn't give them that pleasure, I don't even know where I got the boldness to stare back at them, I just did and they really felt silly. The only girl amongst them came to me later to say she was sorry, and we actually became very good friends.

I guess one doesn't need to repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good