Stop, ask before you judge

When a calamity or a challenging situation befalls an individual the common place notion is usually that the person deserves it or may be at fault. This may not always be the case as things like that are bound to happen even if the victim in people's eyes has not erred. If you have never been in such a situation, count yourself as being extremely lucky.

Do not always assume that the guy who was arrested by the cops must be a hardened criminal or the guy who spent an extra year in college must have been an unserious student. Try not to pass judgement before you hear the full story as you may be concluding in error and end up maligning an innocent individual.

Let me narrate a personal experience. In my penultimately year at college, there was a very important course I had to take in the first semester. This course was compulsory and had to be passed before graduation. It so happens that if you failed it, you couldn't take in the final year because of the credit load of the final session. The implication was that failure at first attempt would result in spending an additional year in college just to write and pass a single course. Hence all students took the course very seriously.

Students had to register for the course, do a group assignment and finally write the examination. I did all these and even led the group I was assigned to. So you can imagine the shock and embarrassment I felt when results were eventually released and mine was missing .

I had to write a letter appealing that the issue be addressed due to its implications on my graduation. My fate hung on the balance as investigation revealed that the department responsible for the course did not have my records not even for the group assignment I took the lead for.

It simply appeared as though that my records had vanished into thin air. However thanks to the efforts of a good family friend and divine providence, the issue was resolved before the commencement of my final session at the University albeit with some drama when my results were eventually sent to my department. The results were finally appropriately documented upon being sent a second time.

I can only imagine how I would have coped having to spend an extra year at the University for something that was due to no fault of mine.

The lesson I learnt from my experience is to always try to give excuses for people when they are having challenges as they could just be innocent bystanders in this journey called life which has its own fair share of unexpected twists and turns.

For spending you time to read this article, I say

Shukran

Danke

Merci

Gracias

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