LOVED

I remember my second year in the higher institution when a scene I'm sure I might never forget took place. I may never forget it because it happened in the room where I was allocated in the male school dormitory.

The room was a four-man room, looking decent and spaciously designed with two double bunks facing each other. I was lying on one of the upper bunks one late night languidly perusing the pages of a book when two of my roommates shouldered  our fourth man on both sides into the room, and seeing the state of the fourth guy, I knew he had drank from too many bottles.

I saw them enter and acknowledged their presence with a nod. They were also drunk, but not to stupor as the other guy that could barely stand between them, which means he is trying to drown out his sorrow, whatever it is, I was not privy to it.

I thought that was all it would be; that they would just crash on their respective bunks as usual and wake up fully rested the next day. Laughs! But it didn’t happen that way. The next thing I knew the fourth guy jumped down the bunk and vomited all over the floor of the room. What a mess!

I just stood there sitting cross legged on my bunk watching the whole drama as my other two roommates reluctantly stood up and took up the job of cleaning up his mess and tucking him back into the bed. Sincerely, I was too irritated by their drinking habits than to take part in the cleaning process.

But looking back now, I remembered the way my other roommates tucked our fourth and drunken roommate into bed and how the guy's face looked peaceful while he slept. I remembered the state he was in when they brought him to the room and the fact that they didn’t abandon him in the club where they went to drink themselves high.

It might not be perfect and it might not be the right way, but everyone wants to be loved and cared for.  Everyone wants to have someone to rely on, smile with, joke with and be loved. I realized that most people that indulge in acts that are not pleasant in  public eyes fall into it because they feel deprived of love or that it wasn't communicated properly.

So, let us become a creature of love that the fragrance of our love may permeate the air and warm the heart of the lonely hearted and sad hearted.

In God’s love,

Okunola Peace.