MY TEMPER GOT THE BEST OF ME...

I had just settled into JSS 1D and was getting used to the school environment. There were some "no go" areas. You should not be caught during school hours around such places. They included dinning hall, teachers' quarters, principal's lodges and etc. A special breed of senior students who we were taught to completely fear and respect also paraded at will. They were called prefects. I had a temper issue which I was trying to contain. I was just getting tired of climbing my locker about 20 times in the morning all because a prefect entered the class and echoed "mount on your locker". In fact, before we finished greeting any of the prefect that enters our class, some of us would subconsciously jump onto our lockers in readiness for the consequent "exercise" that must follow suit. These guys don't care if one was reading, copying note or just decided to be at peace with oneself.

They'd storm any classroom at will and demand for anything. "Na wa o...na who send me come DMGS? ", I'd rhetorically ask myself. Most students damaged their lockers as a result of this routine and daily unnecessary exercise. I think we even started running on top of our lockers since we've all been groomed to become amateur climbers.

This went on and of course, the end wasn't even at sight. We just started living with it. It became a part of school experience. My class was on the first and only floor of the junior block as at the time. On this fateful day, I was truly exhausted from jumping up and down my desk coupled with the fact that the whole thing was disturbing me from finishing the note I was copying. As I brought the note to continue, there came a fellow classmate, chigbo Anielozie. This guy was responsible for giving everybody nicknames in the class and beyond. He gives you a name that mocks something about you and he was really good at it. Till date, some of the names he gave to fellow schoolmates stuck with them till eternity.

So, chigbo came towards me. He'd draw my notebook and fly off the window. Yes, I forgot to add that outside our climbing skills, we also developed flying skills. Nobody used the door even though it literally had no door. We all flew in and out from the window. Even people that had their lockers closer to the door post must still fly in through the window. It was in the constitution, I suppose. So chigbo was intentionally bugging me albeit playfully but he wouldn't understand that I wasn't in the mood. I was seriously tired from desk climbing marathon and had little energy to copy my notes. As my temper rose and boiled hot, the devil turned my head to a stone just beside the chalk board. Oh, sorry. It wasn't a board.

It was a chalk wall. Since I could also fly, I flew from my desk, picked the stone, aimed directly at chigbo and released the projectile. Little did I know that chigbo too had mastered the art of dodging. He professionally dodged a close range "bullet". Wonderful. The devil then directed the stone as it hit the classroom window pane first, then the corridor rail second and straight down with same velocity onto Mr Ewelukwa"s louvers. Holy Moses. We heard a loud bang. The stone had shattered 4 of the louvers. Chigbo was silent but I was dead already. The few times I saw who Mr Ewelukwa is were times he was flogging students. Our classroom was directly opposite his bungalow apartment. I ran with tears to my brother's classroom then to report myself and seek advice. As I made my way in tears back to the "crime scene", Mr Ewelukwa had "captured" chigbo and was waiting for me. I was not going to run. I was coming to surrender myself. My oh my.. How we came out of the mess is a story for another day but I started then to learn how to cage my temper.

Mr Odoh Arinze