Being forgetful is something that, at one point or another, everyone will fall victim to. You just can’t avoid it. There will be moments where you’ll be so stressed out that things will slip your mind, and there are times when you’ll have so much on your plate that you might end up missing out on one or the other. And in many of these cases, it has nothing to do with your mental health or your memory. It could just be a simple case of tiredness or stress.
And it could be a sign that you need to relax and rest. It could also be a sign of acute hunger. Hunger can make you forget a number of things as well. Just like cooking and forgetting that you’ve previously added salt, you end up adding more, which makes the food salty. Or totally forgetting that you’re supposed to even put salt at all. That’s why I don’t cook when I’m hungry, it usually doesn’t always end well.
Just like everyone else, I’ve also had my moments where I forgot something quite important. And this time, it cost me quite a lot of money. Back when I was in school, I stayed off-campus in a lodge, as I’ve mentioned here multiple times. And due to how epileptic the light situation is, it’s hard to survive without a generator. So, I had a medium-sized one that was enough to power my room and all my appliances.
But then, not everyone is privileged enough to have a generator or buy fuel, so whenever those of us who do have one turn it on, everyone comes to our rooms to charge phones. And in the spirit of being neighborly, we allow them. This usually places a lot of load on your generator, especially if the generator is a small one. And even worse, if there are many power banks and laptops being charged.
But that’s not the annoying part. There are individuals who can’t do without their phones and would be knocking on your door every ten minutes to check their phones, some would straight up want to remain in the room for the duration that the generator is on, although I don’t usually allow that because I enjoy having the room to myself when I’m watching movies. I don’t want to have to explain to people who came in halfway why the stepmom is looking at her stepdaughter funny.
So, when your generator is on, you rarely rest. Because every few minutes, someone is knocking on your door, either to take their device or to charge it. It’s frustrating. So, some of us figured out a code. We are on the generator late at night, sometime around 11 PM. This was a genius move because by then it would be too late, and anyone who brings their phones will have to leave them until the next day. At that time, you could hear a knock and even ignore it without coming off as rude. And it was especially good because the gen could stay through the night until the morning. Although I wasn't and still am not a fan of leaving generators to run through the night.
So, I did that, and it became a routine for me. One Monday evening, I bought fuel. I filled up my 10-liter keg, which cost me close to 14k at the time. I was going to use the fuel for the entire week, I made this plan with the idea that I would substitute with NEPA light as well.
That Monday night, I turned on the generator as usual around 11 pm, watched a bit of a movie, and went to sleep. I thought I would be awake to turn it off around 2 am, but I was wrong. I must have been really tired because I didn’t wake up again until sunrise. When I did, I found out that NEPA had restored power, which was a good thing, and I went to change over. While I was changing over, I saw one of my neighbors and I had a chat with them. The usual good morning pleasantries.
During the chat, I got a message on my departmental groupchat that there was an assignment that had to be submitted that very morning. The course rep gave us a deadline because he was already on his way to the lecturer’s office. So, I hurriedly prepared and went to school with the assignments, which I submitted in the nick of time. However, by then, I couldn’t return home knowing that I would come back again for my lectures in the afternoon.
So, I simply hung around until my lectures started. It was when all my lectures for the day were over, and I was talking easily with my coursemates, that one of them commented offhandedly that there had been light since the wee hours of the morning. The light had come in at around 4 am, while I was still in deep sleep.
Those orange boxes on the wall help you switch from generator to NEPA light, and each room has one.
This seemed to be the key that unlocked my brain. My mouth fell open as I remembered my huge error; I didn’t turn off my generator! After I changed over from generator to NEPA light, I struck up a conversation with my neighbor, and then the assignment issue totally distracted me from the fact that I was supposed to turn it off. And this was especially crazy because while the generator was outside, I was supposed to be able to hear it, and with no load, it should have been louder.
Somehow, I still don’t get it. I don’t know if due to my hurry to get to school, I forgot that I was now running on NEPA light and not generator, so when I still heard it, I gave it no mind. So, the generator had been on through the night and all through the morning. I had left the generator on when I left home, even when I saw that everyone had light, it still didn’t strike my mind that the thing was still on.
From there, I hurriedly grabbed a bike that drove me back home. However, by then, the generator had gone off. It had run out of fuel. The previous night, I filled the tank, leaving just a little in the keg. And all that fuel had gone out. Just like that. The generator had run for hours without any load, and it caused major issues for me. I had to change certain components because when I tried to put it on again, it didn’t start.
I also had to buy another engine oil, and the fuel I had marked for the week had finished only on Monday. I ended up spending way more than I had planned. And it ruined my week. I was really angry, but there was nothing I could do. It’s not like I could blame anyone but myself. But as luck would have it, our light situation that week wasn’t too bad, so I didn’t really use the generator during that period. Although if I hadn’t messed up, that fuel would have lasted till next week. So, I still lost.
That thing has never happened again to date. And I know that it won’t. I know how powerful memories can be, and if we’re not careful, anyone at all can get hit. My simple forgetfulness in total cost me somewhere around 35k+, if you add everything up. That was too big a loss for me, and I’d never repeat such again.
And for those who don't know, NEPA is what we call our Power Holders in Nigeria. They go by a different name now, but who cares? Maybe when they're more trustworthy with power, I'll be more inclined to know their name.
