They say experience is the best teacher, and I had to confirm it myself, I learnt not to waste so as not to be in want later.
When I think of the saying, waste not, want not, my mind always travels back to one hot after in our native compound, standing by the burn pile holding a civic education textbook.
The textbook wasn't even mine, it belonged to my elder brother who had finished his Junior secondary school some years before. At that time I still had about 4 years to go before id be in that class. So to me, the book was just another old stuff cluttering the house and I had to get rid of it. And besides I never even understood anything in it, ok I had never even opened it properly, in my mind it was obvious: my father would always buy me a brand new textbook when I get to that class so why keep the old one?
So, when it was time to burn some old papers and waste in the house, I quickly and quietly slipped the textbook onto the pile. The matches were warm in my hands and I remember thinking how much less clutter we'd have after clearing all those wastes and I was already thinking of how light I'll feel after clearing out things I didn't need.
But before I could strike the match, my mom appeared beside me.
"Wait," she said. Her voice wasn't too loud, but it stopped me cold.
She bent down, picked up the textbook from among the other piles, dusted it off, she wasn't angry, but firm.
"You don't know how useful this could turn out to be in the later in the future," she added, then she took it back into the house.
I shrugged then, half annoyed, but I just kept quiet as she walk in to keep the book in her room. But I couldn't see how that battered textbook would even matter.
Well, let's just say years passed, and life changed in ways I never imagined. My father who I always put my hopes and and who I thought would be there to buy me new school supplies, passed away before I even reached that class. Then we could barely afford textbooks so buying them wasn't something we could take for granted anymore. Every single dime we had mattered, and sometimes even exercise books had to be carefully shared among us.
When I was finally in Junior secondary and civic education was on my timetable, and my teachers needed us all to have the textbooks, I felt a quiet panic, I knew we couldn't afford another textbook, at least not them and I didn't want to be the student who always borrows books from classmates.
I told my mom about it, she looked at me with a look of quiet triumph, she pulled out a stack of old textbooks she had stored in years, including that Civic Education textbook I had tried to burn. The cover was still the same, though a bit faded, but the pages were still intact.
She handed it over to me with a smile, holding it I felt a mix of shame and gratitude, Back then K had thought it was useless but now it felt like hope!.
Back in the classroom when the teacher asked us to open a chapter, I finally had something to turn to. It my not have been the latest edition, but it meant I wasn't left out. At least it gave me a little confidence when everything else felt uncertain.
I learnt not to waste. Sometimes what feels like waste today may become what we need most tomorrow. My mom's act of saving that book reminded me that "waste not, want not" is not just about thriftiness it's about foresight and believing that tomorrow might ask for what you nearly burnt as waste.
For me, it became more than a textbook, it was a piece of my father's care still reaching me even after he was gone. It was proof that even old and forgotten things can still hold up the future.
Image generated using my prompt on meta.ai
