The gift of genuine connection to the right people

Relationships are one of man's valuable gifts a person can have because the quality of a relationship has the capacity to turn a person's life around either for the best or worse.

When I came across the topics for this weekend, this particular topic jumped out at me because there are actually three people who have had some great level of impact on my life.

The first person I loved who's not my parent is my uncle Jacob. He's my mom's younger brother who worked somewhere close to our house when I was still very young. When my mom had my younger sister, I can remember he always came to help with the house chores, and as a matter of fact, he taught me how to clean.

As I grew up in that same area, one time a guy tried to bully me, and once he heard, he found the boy and gave him a warning, which made that guy get off my back.

The second person that has had a great impact on my life is my boss, who taught me event decorations as a teenager. When my dad was transferred to a new location in the year 2007, I met this guy in church doing decorations and drapes, and I loved it, so I spoke with my dad, and we approached him.

Just like a dream, he took me as his first trainee and thought what was more interesting was the fact that he didn't collect any money from me at the time and also gave me a token each time we went to work, not minding that I was learning, and those tokens assisted me to get my first Symbian phone, the Nokia N72, back in the day. And as a young guy who loves adventure, decoration has made me travel to some states and other locations within my state as well, not forgetting to mention that it has given me some top clients with some good pay.

And last but not least is my brother from another mother, whom I met in church as a freshman in school. I attended a church that was some distance away from my hotel, and I was spending some real money, which wasn't so convenient.

So I appreciate this guy in church who was a fellow drummer; we have a good relationship, and he suggested I could come and stay where he was staying over the weekends. He wasn't the owner of the house, which I didn't know, but I went. That's how I met this brother who also houses other guys like me in his house.

We were literally sometimes up to 11 guys in his two-bedroom apartment on some weekends, and he would take care of everyone like we were his younger brothers, and he never complained. This taught me another aspect of hospitality. I can go on because there are a lot of other things he did for me, but I would like to draw the curtain here.

Relationships are to be valued. When you have people who have your genuine interest at heart, you owe it to them to also have their interest because if it becomes a one-sided giving, at some point the other person will get tired of you, so learn to be a value to people.

This is my entry for the Hive weekend experience topic, "Tell us about someone you love (who is not your parents, children, or a religious figure) and why you love them."

The image used is mine.