How My Perspective Towards Life Undeniably Changed for the Best
By: Iyiola S.
Tags: Personal Development, Experience, Life, Life Lessons

Two years ago…..

While I was walking down the street with some old friends to get some lunch, we walked past a man who sat by the trash can. He was quite old and looked so fragile. He looked like he had not had a meal for days. As we walked past him, he stretched his arms, but we totally ignored him. I looked back, he looked back at me, and I could see tears in his eyes. I took my face away in disgust and walked off. After eating to my full, I could not finish up my lunch, so I asked the waitress to pack the leftovers for me as a takeaway. I figured I could use it to feed my dog for dinner.

After gisting and laughing, we finally said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I was left to walk back that street (where the man stayed) alone. I was terrified, so I plugged in my AirPods and hurried my steps. Using the corner of my eyes, I could see his eyes follow me. This made me so uncomfortable. I turned and walked back to him and asked: “Have you had lunch?” He shook his head, and I felt sad.

I handed him the food pack in my hands and told him: “this food is for my dog, but I see you need it more than he does. He would probably bark all through the night, but it is fine at least the lions in your stomach will let you sleep well”. He laughed as a drop of tear rolled down his eye. I laughed too. His laugh was beautiful. I said goodbye and walked away.

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash

For some reason, I felt happy that the food did not waste. I made it a point every night to give him dinner. I did that for two weeks straight, and I saw changes in his health and physic.

One day I asked him why he was in this state. He smiled and replied: “I was too greedy with everything. I lost my wife to another man, my kids to the government, my money and my home through lack of contentment”. He cried and kept wishing he could turn back the hands of time. I told him It wasn’t possible to go back. He has to leave the past in the past and see better things for the future. After telling me all about his life, I cut him short when I saw a paper and a pen beside him, apparently, he was writing a letter before I came.

“Are you writing something?” I was curious. He smirked as he hid the paper and said it was nothing. I did not want to fight it off with him so, I just let it be. I said my goodbye, plugged in my AirPods, and left. On getting to my house, I got attacked by robbers. I got stabbed in my back, but he got stabbed in his heart.

Apparently, Dave saw these robbers and followed them whilst they were following me. When they attacked me from the back, he came in to stop them. I went to hide as they beat him and finally stabbed him. When they were gone, I rushed to him, called the ambulance, and begged him to stick around. He clanged to my hands and I could see the pain in his eyes. With the pain in his eyes, tears from his eyes, and blood from his mouth, he smiled and whispered: “the paper.”

I was shocked, angry, and confused. I could not understand why he mentioned that. I could feel that I was losing him. I wept and begged that he should hold on for a bit. Finally, the ambulance was here, but they confirmed he has lost a lot of blood and they were not sure of his survival chance. It stung my chest. I even forgot I had a stab at my back. I felt I needed to save him and needed him around.

But, He died.

After about a week of not feeling safe anymore (I didn’t know why), I decided to move out from that street. While packing my boxes, I remembered my friend Dave. “The paper!” I exclaimed. I rushed out of my house to the trash place where dave used to stay. With my breathing distorted, I searched recklessly, looking for something I hoped would still be there. After minutes of scattering the trash cans and re-designing the already swept street with trash, I suddenly found it in a hole inside the wall.

I sat — on the trash, opened the paper, whilst my hands were trembling.

It read:

“Hey, If you are reading this, I probably became super-rich again or, I died. Remember the day you gave me food, that night was the night I planned to take my life. I was tired of It. I mean, my friends mocked me, I could not even look them in the eye, and that was one reason I moved across town and ended up here. It is hard. It has been hard. Life is hard, and it will continue to be very unfair. That simple act of giving was what saved a wandering soul and changed me. I am forever indebted to you.

For the first time in months, I smiled, and you made it happen. Your smile gave me hope to exist and something to live for. You make me happy for some unknown reason, and I hope to be in a position one day to make you happy as well.

Well, I have a piece of advice:

Always be patient. Life will go on if you have or lose everything. We all get some luck in our lives, but it is not how much luck but what you do with the luck you get. Your biggest obstacle is You, so allow yourself some slack and learn to love yourself. Try not to be too hard on yourself and always be contented with what you have. Never greedy. Your smile is the most beautiful thing, keep that smile and let it light up the world and change lives just as it changed mine. Your heart is beautiful, so always remain kind no matter what. Being important is nice, but being nice is very important. You will face challenges as you journey this life, keep cheering yourself, and I am always here rooting for you.”

After reading this, I felt a strong feeling in my chest. My heart froze for a nanosecond. I felt a tear roll down my eyes, and my brain kept screaming: “This is exactly what I needed to hear — to read.”

After that moment, I saw life differently. Ever since then, I have learned to stop judging people. Rather than judging them, I took it as a pain point to understanding their situation. I mean, you do not know the devil(s) they are fighting. I became a better person as my perspective towards events, people, and places changed. I stopped being ignorant, and I started to look beyond the individual, so I could see the best version of them.

So before you judge, criticize, or mock someone, think of where they might have been, where they are coming from, why they act the way they do and what situation caused that. You may not know the right answer. Better still, what you can do for them is to Be Kind!

(And if you really want to know why they are like that, you could simply ASK! — sincerely. Do not ask so you can mock them — that would be a very shameful act)

Now is the perfect opportunity to show that act of kindness. This season is the season of love, so let down your guard, try to see things from other’s perspectives, and be there for people even when they push you out or when they seem not worthy. That little act can change your life as well as the individual’s life for the better.