From Dreaming to Becoming - Be Geared to Achieve

And so Ada looked up when the big car zoomed past her mother's hut, splattering her with the dirty water that stayed stagnant in front of her home. Instead of feeling indignant, like most of her kinsmen would have felt, she smiled as she stared after the roaring Jeep. She looked on with longing until the car was no longer in sight - the smile broadening.


Eunice saw the longing in her daughter's eyes and it bothered her. Her daughter was a dreamer. This was not a problem; the problem was that the teenage girl believed that her dreams could come true. This frightened the middle aged woman and gave her many sleepless nights. Her philosophy? Expect less, less disappointment.

"Stop talking nonsense, my child," she will always hush her daughter once the girl started her tale of how she wanted to be like the man who drove the big car. "You and that man are not in the same world. The man lives in the other part of the world and it is impossible for people like you and me to cross over," she stressed. But this only fueled Ada up instead of daunting her.

Eunice, frustrated, decided that she had to do something to stop her daughter from dreaming unattainable dreams. All she could see was her daughter veering on a highway to frustration and bitterness and she didn't want this for her. So she came up with a brilliant idea. An early marriage!

She had rejected the offer of a man who had come few months ago to betroth her daughter to his son who lived in the city. Ada was still too young, was her reason. But in the face of her recent problem, she decided that it could be the only solution. Why not? Her best friend Chiamaka had a daughter who dreamed of living a different life than the one she was given by her parents and thus she rejected every marriage offer that came. Now she was 27 and unmarried! Eunice will not watch the same happen to her daughter. Ada was just 14 but she had to make hay while the sun is still up there! The folly of a loving mother!

So Ada was packaged like a Christmas gift and sent to the city, to be married. But the good thing was that she had to stay in an uncle's place first for two years until she is 16 before she can move into her husband's home.

Two years was enough to redirect her path. She continued to speak about her dreams until her uncle's wife - totally wearied - convinced her husband to send her to school for the two years she had to stay with them; just to rid herself of the ranting girl! And that was all that was needed.

The marriage was cancelled and Ada continued school; built a career and 13 years later she shocked her mum close to heart attack by driving home one cool evening in a Jeep! Talk about all things working for good? This is just it! Mum thought she was solving a problem by sending daughter away but... I think she did solve the problem, but not the way she planned it.

You can be whatever you have the capacity to conceive in your heart. Once you think it, believe it, even the universe will re-adjust to make it happen. Get fired up now!