The power of connection & the potential that lies within every interaction

Even if every other date is wiped off the face of my memory, this particular day will remain, deeply etched into my conscious and subconscious.

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It was almost noon and since I was done with all my chores, I spread myself out on the bed in my mother's room and tried to take a nap.

I successfully began dozing off when my phone began to beep. I sighed wearily and picked it up with a groan. It was my mother.

“Mummy?”

“Treasure, could you help me recharge the meter? I learned that there is light in the neighborhood but Flourish said there's no light at home”

There was nothing I could do then, the only opportunity I had to rest was gone for the day. I rose to recharge the meter and true to my mom's words, power came on in our house.

I logged into my social media apps to see if there was any message I hadn't replied to since I was bored, it was then I discovered that I had been ignoring people on Facebook Messenger.

I sat down to read and sort the messages, responding to the response-worthy ones and archiving or blocking the spammers.

Amongst the response-worthy chats, was one chat that opened a different line for my career.

His name was Smart.

He was not an old-time friend so I was courteous with him while responding to his message.

Good afternoon Miss Treasure, please I want to know if you're okay since you stopped making posts on social media. Just a concerned follower.

I read the message again and again then smiled. I had received messages like that since June of the previous year when I was alerted about being plagiarized and stopped posting my stories on the Facebook platform.

Hello, good afternoon Mr Smart. I'm fine, thank you.

I responded and moved on to other chats. Seeing how I unintentionally ignored a lot of good people, I decided to check my Facebook messenger every day, just in case someone who wasn't on my contact list dropped me a message.

It wasn't until later that evening that Smart responded to my message.

That's good to know, honestly. So what do you do now that you're not cooking up stories for your audience anymore?

I sighed. I wasn't doing anything other than pitching my short stories for publication and I told him so.

Any luck yet?

I responded with the truth, None.

Aww…I'm really sorry to hear that. Maybe you should do something else then?

I wondered what he was talking about and couldn't find out yet because my mom had just gotten back from the market. I joined her in the kitchen, assisting to wash and pound the bells of pepper tied up in a nylon bag.

I could hear the notification sound on my phone ring almost endlessly while I was in the kitchen. I ran to pick up my phone when my mom no longer needed my assistance.

Do you teach? Or should I ask if you can?

That's one way you can make money.

You can teach literature or English if you don't want to teach story writing.

Some of us need it.

Some of us? I wondered who he was referring to and began typing almost immediately.

“Treasure!” I groaned. My mother was probably done with the cooking and needed me to get plates out for her. I rushed back to my phone after attending to my mom.

Well, it seems you're busy now. I'll drop this anyway.

I'm in my final year and I need assistance with my seminar paper, myself and a couple of my guys too. Could you assist us with it? We'll pay for it of course.

I was taken aback at the request. As of then, I was just in my second level in the higher institution. How could I possibly assist final-year students?

What kind of assistance do you guys need?

I asked finally.

We're writing about certain literary genres and trust me, we know nothing about them. If you could help us….

I became apprehensive instantly. Surely there were other people within his reach who could assist with the seminar paper. There were possibly intelligent people among his coursemates who could lend them notes or materials to read. Why was he asking me?

I was reluctant to respond to his message for a few days and when I did, it was “okay” I said.

I decided to give them a try.

I did a lot of research on the topic ‘Literary devices’, gathering as much knowledge as I could on it, then created a WhatsApp group and added the 4 of them to it.

The class went on for 4 weeks.

In this period, I didn't just find students, I found friends. I was a proud part of their seminar and project journey, receiving feedback on an almost daily basis and dishing out advice as if I knew what I was doing.

A week before their seminar, I did a free confidence boost class for them, giving them the tips I had gotten during my years as a debate speaker in secondary school.

The day after their project defense, I received a whooping sum in my account with the comment “Thank you for being a light at the end of the tunnel”.

That was the most humbling experience I had in my entire life.

I still keep in touch with Smart and his friends to date and they remain VIP members of my Facebook fan base.