A Hard Lesson Learned

People always say that what does not kill you makes you stronger. This is a cliché that is not taken serious most of the time, but it is true. However, when a person is in a very dangerous situation, the last thing that occurs him is the fact that the situation will have a positive effect. When a person goes through a bad experience, he or she never thinks about how good the experience might influence him or her. However, the realization of influence the experience had on him or her comes after it is long over.

In my early years in college, I had an invincible feeling that I had acquired in my high school years. However, as time passed on,  soI became more responsible and even took a job to do during my free time, in order to get some money. On the other hand, that feeling of invincibility was still there so I sometimes felt the need to show the world what was behind my calm responsible face. One day, I had taken a job to renovate a house but the other people I worked with were not so helpful. The fact that made it worse is that, they used drugs and even brought them to the work site. I was not happy about this.  Even though I was not an expert but I was able to do my best; I also did not use drugs and it did not please me that they used them in my presence. I was not very good to them and treated them with disdain as if I knew everything about the job.

On this particular day, one of that people approached me and asked me if I had a problem with him. I was surprised he had decided to approach so I made a decision to tell him what I felt about their behaviors .I said I did not appreciate him bringing drugs at work. He told me he could opt to slap me, but he would not, which only made me feel better about myself. I told him he would not dare because he was a coward and only cowards came to jobs with drugs. This left him surprised because he could not have imagined the fact that I could tell him. What happened next is a little fussy in my mind, but I remember having waken up on the floor feeling pain all over my body.

The other colleagues surrounded me asking what was I thinking talked like that to him. He was apparently known for his violent behaviors and drugs made it worse. My boss asked both of us to accompany him to his office and said he could not allow people like us to workat his firm. I felt that this was his way out of a bad situation, though I felt it was unfair I accepted with grace request for both of us to resign.

That day marked my last day of invincibility; I learnt that it sometimes it is better to keep quiet. If I had chosen not to talk back, then he would not have had a reason to beat me up. I could not have lost my job, and I could have left a good reputation at that firm. I came to learn later that the person who beat me had struggled with substance abuse for a long time. He was able to join a rehabilitation centre and recovered. I always wish I could have made an attempt to reach out to him with humility.