The Lie That Helped To Motivate Me!

During my final year of high school, I was unable to sit some of my exams due to financial constraints. However, I performed fairly well in the ones I took but could not pursue my dream immediately after graduating. I knew I needed to become someone worthwhile in life and thought nothing would stop me. Also, I was an intrinsically motivated child, so no one needed to push me to work hard. Perhaps my high school experience and the school’s culture deserved a little credit; they played their part.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to go straight to college, I took a job at a wholesale store, where I worked for two years. During my first year there, I met a former schoolmate and we spoke for a few minutes. She told me she was doing a course that would allow her to work next to the Prime Minister. I felt a mix of jealousy and happiness for her; it was a bitter-sweet moment. I, too, had dreams but just that mine was to work next to a principal, to become a teacher.

That conversation lingered in my mind for a long time. It had such an impact on me that I registered at an institution earlier than I had planned, where I pursued a pre‑teaching course, took two subjects I had not studied in high school, and passed them. Since I didn’t have enough money to fully support myself, I continued working at the wholesale store, but only on Saturdays. My dear parents couldn’t do much either – their hearts were willing, but their pockets were dry.

While attending the institution, I saw that same schoolmate again, and to my surprise, the course she was pursuing was completely different from what she had told me the year before. She had lied, perhaps to make me jealous. And yes, I was jealous, but little did she know that her lie gave me an extra push to pursue my dream career.

I spent two years at the institution, taught as a pre‑trained teacher for eight months, and then off to teacher’s college I went. I managed with the little I had saved, the little from my parents, and a student loan. Suffice it to say, I did well in college and graduated as a trained teacher. Finally, my dream was accomplished, but I must give even a teenie-weenie bit of credit to the lie my schoolmate told me.

I truly believe that in every seemingly bad situation, there is some good. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”

Indeed, I was sharpened by that big, bold lie.