The Thankless

I’m sure at some point or time in your life you’ve been faced with a situation, occupation or task in which you put in TREMENDOUS effort and a large amount of your time to achieve the maximum potential of your results can get – all for it to mean so little to the people who either view it or the people you did it for. Not a thank you, not a clap, not a single naira note in your hand for it….

Truthfully, sometimes - It’s painful to be unappreciated. It hurts when you or your work isn’t recognized. But sometimes the work we do isn’t done necessarily because we’re looking for some grand form of appreciation or applause, but simply because it’s a good thing to do – the right thing even. (Click below to read more.....)

Being a course representative for my class for sometime when I was younger, during that period, on an average day, I would;

• Have to be at classes early to set a good example. Including my dress-sense to show an air of responsibility
•  Make attendance sheets for every department
•  Organize lectures by certifying if they would hold or not, and calling the lecturers if need be
•  Collect attendance sheets at the end of the class from everyone and return them to the lecturer,  sometimes helping the lecturer with some tasks here and there
•  Meet the college administrative officer to obtain information to relay to my classmates
•  Liaise with the other course representatives to coordinate classes, tests, assignment or other tasks
•  Listen to complaints, questions, suggestion and information variants from several numerous people and respond in kind
• Search for information and news relating to our class, set or school that was vital and relay it back to my classmates
• Meet people in my set, ask about their reading progress, general wellbeing and welfare and check up on people who missed out on classes, assignments or other tasks to the best of my abiity.
• Remain in the college from whenever I was done with my tasks and try to read up what little I could for the rest of the day before I had to return to my hostel close to 10pm or thereabout.

This was, of course, on a fairly average day and doesn’t include the various miscellaneous situations and task related duties which came up so very often – from the lecturers, other staff or even my own  peers, or my own personal schedule which included being a choir member, senator for my medical students association, poem writing, designing, or helping out as the local “tech support” for many of my fellow peers and other miscellaneous activities which are too numerous and more or less redundant to be mentioned.

Now because I stayed in the college for so long every day, I had apparently acquired a reputation for loving my corporate outlook/wear and was “too serious to have fun”. Amusing to see that people thought I didn’t want a social life, when the simple reason was just that I didn’t have enough free time to particularly engage in what people would term “social activities” – the parties, the gaming, the movie watching, the dating etc.

Now it’s quite easy to understand from any point of view that I wasn’t necessarily asked to engage myself in many of these things that I did, and a lot of people would see it as my playing “busy-body”. However, the truth of the matter is that all I wanted to do was to keep in accordance with my motto and belief of “self-excellence”. I’m not the most busy person on earth, in my school or even in my class probably – who can tell. But I’ve always believed in putting yourself ahead, setting a standard and benchmark,  doing the absolute best with what you’ve been given and being the most excellent version of yourself you can be. I may not have always achieved this, but I’ve done what I can.

I’m not writing this article to bring attention to all the things I’ve been doing for the past year, but rather to bring to light the “Thankless” situation many of us are in. There are so many people who work so hard and so well, going above and even beyond the call of duty who receive no Thank you’s or smiles, handshakes, hugs or a simple thankful look. The soldier fighting for your country. The policeman striving to keep the neighbourhood safe. The choirmaster looking for songs that perfectly fit the sermon of the day and mood of the week. The blogger trying to change the world, looking for comments on his/her blog. The NGO founder striving to make an impact and a difference. The lecturer struggling to carry along everyone in his/her class as much as possible. The father or mother suffering to give his/her children the best of everything he/she never had - workking two or three jobs a week just to make ends meet and provide the best of whatever they can....

Many of us work hard and harder still and end up being frustrated by the lack of appreciation and/or recognition. But the truth of the entire matter that each of us knows is that you’re not really doing all this for the thanks in the first place. You’re doing this for the results. For the effect it will have. For the fact of the matter that it is a good thing to do, maybe simply just the right thing.

These jobs are an honor. They need to be done, and for the fact that we were, in any way, chosen to do them - these jobs that no-one else would do, is an achievement - for that it is an honor to serve. In the end - all I’m really striving to tell everyone out there is that, though in fact at times our work may be thankless, it is no way at all worthless.

Honorable Mentions:
Chimobi Udoji

Charles Okeke

Afolabi Toyosi

Igbokwe Chisom
Aare Afe Babalola
Ms. Rita Tola
Hon. Dr. Ekennia
Dr. Mrs. Patrica Ekennia

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Thanks for coming here :)

Love, Stars and Jam.