A UNIQUE DREAM

I was tender and naive, but yet my dream was unique. Between my mother and my father, I was quite close to my father; I guess all my siblings were. It was not her fault, though; she could not help it but go in the morning and come back in the evening most days. Coupled with the fact that she was a better disciplinarian than my father, we tended to draw close to our father the more in our tenderness. It changed with time as we grew into maturity, but my father really was there for us the most, and he influenced us in so many ways. In my own case, he influenced even my dreams.

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My father was a trader in our neighbourhood. As at the time, he was the best in what he did, and I just wanted to be like him. He sold electrical installation parts, electronics, and a little bit of building materials. He was no poor man, as we went to the best schools around at the time, and I simply wanted to be like him. I guess I was not a selfish dreamer as a child, influenced by the fact that he was able to provide for us whatever we needed; I simply wanted to be like my father. Mind you, I never paid attention to whatever it was that my mother contributed, as far as my tender self was concerned, it was all about my father.

When I was first asked in school to state what I wanted to become, I boldly stated 'businessman'. It was, of course, funny to my fellow students, who burst into laughter; I guess we were all tender, with no single understanding of what we were doing. Given our tender nature, the most prominent professions amongst the students were doctor, lawyer, and different categories of engineer; only very few stated teacher. I guess those ones were influenced by their love for their class teachers. But then, mine was unique; and of course, funny, but not to my teacher.

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Observing as everyone laughed at the profession I had chosen, my class teacher rebuked the entire class. After that, she went on to elaborate on what it means to be a businessman, giving examples of prominent rich businessmen. She even added that the richest people on earth are businessmen and women. With all that being said by my teacher, I became really proud of what I dreamed of becoming. Despite how proud I became from that day, my great dream of becoming a businessman just like my father vanished with time.

Being a Catholic and a child from a Catholic family, I at some point began admiring the priestly vocation. This time, it was quite a solid dream, and my parents were happy to support me. I eventually went into the seminary, but had to leave after my philosophical studies. I guess it was not meant for me after all. From the look of things now, I guess I might eventually end up becoming like my father. I might not be a dealer of electrical stuff, but I am already into business in some kind of way; and I am working on making it bigger.

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Thank you so much for reading through to the end, and do not fail to drop your beautiful comments below. The pictures used for this post were generated using meta AI.