Gossip
Make hay while the sun shines
Amos was the last and only male child among the four girls of his parents. In a community where boys were highly revered, his birth came as a joy to his parents, especially his father, who needed a male child to take over from him.
Thus, his father, Mr Marcus Arthur, was prepared to sacrifice all he had so that Amos would become a responsible person and manage the vast estate and other properties of the family.
However, Amos was never serious with anything — he thought he had more time ahead and, therefore, loved to play around with a group of boys in the neighbourhood who were also hardly serious with anything at all.
Because of his association with those boys, Amos soon picked up the habit of playing truant at school. In no time, he was also introduced to cigarette smoking.
One of the highly respected adults in the neighbourhood noticed this and advised Amos to stop but he told the elderly man that he was young and had more time ahead of him so he should be allowed to have fun.
His father’s attention was drawn to the bad habits Amos had picked up. Like any responsible father, he advised his son and promised to give him all that he wanted so that he would change. Surprisingly, even though Amos promised to stop, he did not. Instead, he left home to live with his friends who introduced him to the abuse of hard drugs.
At a stage, if Amos did not smoke in a day, he behaved abnormally. His father could hardly sleep and combed the entire neighbourhood in search of his beloved son. When he finally found him he took Amos to a psychiatric hospital.
Mr Arthur was so worried that his health began failing. He, therefore, could not manage his estates and properties. During that period, his daughters had completed school and were all gainfully employed.
He entrusted the management of his estates to them. A year later, Amos returned home after successful treatment. Amos painfully realised that with the exception of his peers who abused drugs whose lives had ended up miserably, all the others had achieved significant success in life.
With the assistance of his sisters, he went back to school so as to catch up. But anytime he looked back at his past, Amos realised that he had wasted his life. The statement on his lips was always, ‘ I should have made hay while the sun was shining.’
My fellow students, let us make good use of every opportunity we have for the only time to make hay is now that the sun is shining.
Source: graphic.com.gh
