Trust is a feeling that sometimes builds over time but can be broken in a second. Often, we've trusted someone because we see them to be deserving, only for them to lose our trust due to their actions or behavior.

I used to be one that easily trusted someone because I usually give my all when someone relies on and trusts in me, so I expect others to do the same, but after countless backstabbing from people I consider friends, I've learned to not put that 100 percent trust on anyone, because after all, they are humans and bound to go astray.

My first lesson on knowing when to trust or not started way back in my secondary school days, when a new girl got admitted into our school, not to make her feel lonely because I remember how it felt when I started new too, I became friends with her, which made others even jealous of our friendship, I find her interesting because she was intelligent and we would always quiz ourself on things we read, we were much like a matched spirit.

Since she was new, I often lent her my books to copy from and didn't see anything bad in that, she would always brag about being the one who took the first position at her previous school, which was the position I took in mine before her arrival, I never thought anything about it, and was even excited to have a close competition that would make me work harder with my studies.

About two weeks before our exams, a promotional exam at that, I discovered that three of my books in important subjects like mathematics, Intro-tech and I think Biology were missing from my bags, my first intuition was to ask her but she denied ever taking it, I know I sometimes lent my books to others, but I was sure they returned them, and she was the only one that had free access to my school bag, but I didn't suspect her.

This situation caused a distraction for me, because instead of revising for my exams that period, I spent the time left for exams to copy a new note, and that period most students were hesitant to borrow their notes because they too needed to read for exams, even my friend did same, I felt bad and often wondered how my three notebooks disappeared because I had searched everywhere at home and even accused my younger siblings at some point.

Fast-forward to the exam period, I managed with the previous reading I had done before exams and would often pair with a classmate to revise those parts I couldn't meet up with.

On our way back home one day, I decided to get bean cake from a seller along the road, but my friend suggested we don't buy from her instead buy from the next street, the aroma of the woman's bean cake already captivated my senses and I had little change with me, so I ignored her and went ahead, she didn't follow, instead stood at the far end of the other side of the road.

I paid for the bean cake and was enjoying it right there on the road, typical student behavior, suddenly I stood frozen staring at my handwriting and a diagram I had drawn from biology, it was a piece from my biology note, I ran back to the woman that sold the bean cake to me halfway, and shouted to alert my friend to meet me at where I stood, I asked the woman where she had gotten the piece of paper from, and she said a student from my school gave it to her as her old unused note, he handed me the already torn book that was left with just few pages now, I turned to check if my friend was coming, but she had already disappeared.

I explained to the woman that they were my currently used notes and that I had been looking for them for weeks now. She described who brought her the notes, and her description matched my friend's, though she denied it and even refused to meet the woman to justify herself. I was mad at her, and I informed my other classmates to be careful with their notes. My trust in her was gone, and that ended our friendship.

When our results were released, I still maintained my first position while she took the third position, which I guess made her feel ashamed, the more so, because by the next term, she didn't resume with us, though I heard her family moved to another state.

From then henceforth, I learned an early lesson not to trust someone easily.

images used in this post are mine

This post is inspired by the #Aprilinleo monthly topics, day 23.

Thank you for reading.❤❤