At 17 years old

What were you doing when you were 17 years old, I will go first. 

At 17 years old I was in my mother's shop helping her to sell her goods, I wasn't into girls back then and a lot of them came my way, they were trying to start playing with me but I didn't give them a response they wanted. 

Some of my comrades already have thousands of naira in their account but I didn't even have a bank account then, not to talk about putting money inside, I was kind of happy then, because I wasn't bothered too much about my mates, as long as I see the food to eat, it's fine by me. 

As I said, I was jovial back then and feels like the world has a good heart like mine, well, my good heart was broken when my phone was stolen at my mother's shop, it was a traumatizing moment for me and it affected me badly, just something unexpected. 

It was one fateful night, I was at the shop alone when an old woman came to buy something, she was ordering almost everything and I was very happy, like who wouldn't be happy to sell the whole goods in one night? Haha, she was ordering and I was bringing it out, that's when some other people came to buy something and she told me to attend to them first that she can wait, she sat on the chair close to my phone inside the shop, after I finished attending to them, she said she forgot her money at the previous shop she visited and she wants to quickly collect it there and I should also bring out more goods for her to buy, I was smiling and I never knew she has stolen my phone, it was after she took off I realized my phone was missing, it was already too late and I was just walking around the street if I could catch up with her, my body changed and it was like something left me, I just couldn't believe it that such an old Lady who's about 65-85years old could steal from someone young enough to be her grandchild. 

I felt cold that night and I was praying very hard for her to return it, yeah, God didn't answer me, I act like I was fine and it was just a phone anyway, as days passed I was falling sick because of the phone, it was really painful for me, I wished I could turn back the hands of time and stop it for happening, but what is done is done and stealing doesn't have an age limit, a thief doesn't care about his or her age, well, not until they are caught though. 

I remember the old woman that caught at the street that time, she should be in her 70s if I am not wrong, what she does is just walk into a compound, check if anyone is around, if there's no one around, she would use her tool to unlocked the door, steal all the valuables and just walk away like she's leaving her house, it was one fateful when she unlocked someone door and the person was inside the house praying, she was shocked when she saw her and she apologizes that she made a mistake, so she was just walking around the street and she entered another house trying to break the door, that's when she was caught by the street youths, they didn't beat her because she was an old woman. 

Someone identified her and they called her children, the shocking part is that her children have money and we keep wondering what is pushing this woman to steal from people, the children were ashamed because this wasn't her first time being caught, they just don't know what to do with her, people said maybe she was a curse to be stealing that's why she's always on the street check house to house for what to steal. 

What came motivated me to write this article?

Just last week here a group of teens (boys) the youngest among them is 17, while the oldest is 20, was caught for beheading one of their girlfriends for money ritual. According to the news, a security man saw them burning something in a pot and it smells like human part, he alerted the police and they were apprehended, though one of them flee but was later caught, one of the boys told them that they beheaded the girl for money ritual, the police followed them to see where the remaining body was when they got there, they saw the body at the floor with blood all over, now tell me what motivated a young boy at 17 to go into ritual? If not for the environment he lives in, just as I stated in one of my recent articles, they saw their mates cruising on Benz and they feel like a failure for not getting a car at that young age, that's why they decided to do ritual.

Another teen was also caught with a live snake in their bag at a hotel, what could teens be doing with a live snake, when they are not snake catchers or magicians, according to them, they were given to the person they went to meet so they can make a lot of money at a very young age. 

A lot of things are happening and a 17 years old is already feeling like a failure in life for not having a car and the latest iPhone or even sleeping in a hotel for weeks, they are being influenced by the environment and they believed that yahoo + (ritual) is the only way out of poverty, the world is turning already. 

What were you doing when you were 17years old, I would like to hear yours in the comment section or if possible, you can write it as a prompt. 

Thanks for reading and have a stress-less Monday.

Lead image source

31/01/2022