One of my favorite, most enjoyable, and exciting phases of life was my childhood. Even though there were a few slip-ups, I treasure the memories I have of the experiences I had when I was younger more than anything. Every time I think back on them, I can't help but smile at the things that happened in the good old days, and most of the time, I even wish I could go back in time to experience them again.
I had to chose which of my numerous childhood memories to share with you all, but in the end I decided to write about one of them. It happened when I was in elementary school and attempting to save money as a young kid to buy a special device all my friends had, but my guidance couldn't get me.
It so happened that those kinds of cursor games were very popular in those days, and most parents bought them for their children to satisfy their need to at least keep them occupied. However, since I was living under my guidance at the time and they not being able to get me one, I had no choice than to go to my friends but despite my pleading, most of my friends wouldn't let me borrow or play from theirs, I can't really blame them since the games were so addicting.
One of the reasons I decided to save up and buy the game myself was because I got tired of pleading with my friends for permission to play, and they would only give me a few minutes before taking it away. However, this decision caused me some anxiety.
The concern is that, given their reputation for cunning, my guides would outright claim ownership of any money they discovered if they happened to uncover it by chance. I needed to come up with a way to save without their trouble since if I told them I was saving it, the most likely response I would get is that I'm stealing from them.
The second idea I have is to pool my savings with a buddy of mine who is a little over four years older than me and also resides in our home. I went up to Ndubisi and told him about my plans to save money to buy the game; together, we went to the seller and were able to determine the actual cost I needed to save money for, which was only ₦500.
I had to save ₦20 from each of my ₦40 daily allowances as a child in order to get that money, which required me to walk to school rather than take the bus. With the money I was saving, I was expected to be able to save up to ₦500 after five weeks of working the days I would be receiving allowance.
I went to Ndubisi on the fifth day to ask him to give me my savings so I could buy the game, but instead of doing so, he started making excuses for why he had to borrow from them. He later apologized to me for this, so I decided to let go of the other amount he claimed he had spent from my savings, and I continued saving more into his hands in the hopes that it would finalize soon.
Savings that were supposed to last for five weeks ended up lasting as long as three months before I realized what had happened. When I finally lost patience with his endless justifications and demanded that he give me whatever was left of the money I had saved with him, he was unable to comply. We almost got into a fight because I was so dejected and upset, but I know I can't handle him and I can't let my guidance know what almost caused us to fight.
I decided to leave him alone, and I haven't spoken or played with him since. The sadness of having to inconvenience myself in order to save money for something only to have it stolen by someone else forced me to abandon my quest to acquire the game.
The way I was able to recall everything that occurred during those years is still amusing, even though this recollection ended poorly. The fact that children often have a retentive memory and will always remember how you hurt them is perhaps one of the reasons it's not advised to upset them.
Thanks so much for reading through my blog post. It was inspired by the HIVE community topic that encourages us to speak about a notable childhood memory. You can read Kronia's post to get more information about the topic.