"Memories are always carried in the heart"

Memories are an integral part of humans no matter how they are short or long-lived. They are the lasting archives inherent in everyone who has ever lived on earth. Both the young and old are parts of this human storage process called memories.

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There are different memories I would have loved to share, but for the context of this contest, I would be limiting myself to the guidelines by availing us of just three in my archives.

Growing up, I believe is one of the active stages in one's life. It is a time when we are at our peak of high memory storage as this is what the stage comes with. Firstly, I could remember the last days of my dad before his exit from Mother Earth. It is still very clear to me how it all played out.

On that fateful day, I had some ill feeling that something was wrong, I was uncomfortable while in school. This was my early days in primary school which shows how long I've had this in me. I would come outside the classroom, stay in the sun for a while, and go in, and this repeated severally.

When I asked. about my mom who happened to be a teacher in the same school, I was told she went out to respond to an emergency call. As a child, I didn't understand much of that word but rather, patiently waited for her, together with my other siblings. We waited for a longer time even when the school had closed and other pupils had gone home.

I knew something had happened, but we didn't know what exactly. On getting home, the mood at home also showed something was wrong, as people gathered in the house. At this time, it was a condolence, but yet we (the children) still didn't understand much. But rather we were taken to another house, my uncle's apartment to stay with them for the moment. We played and had fun without knowing much about death.

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It was very clear to me in my adulthood that all these that happened then were about death and all that surrounded it. It was not a good one at that time as this destabilized everyone; our careers, education, and the pains of relocating from one region to the other.

The second, I would want to share is an experience during my high school education. A time when a lot happened but I will only share one out of these many. There was a stream just by the school fence, though a little shallow and with a high wave during and immediately after rainfall. As students, it happens that we sneak out just to go swim in this stream.

I could remember on an occasion, I delved into the stream to swim in one of our outings, one of the indigenes who was also a student advised me of the dangers of delving into the water I did not know much about; the depth or happenings on the water floor. There may be mini rocks and other sharp objects, or even deeper than I thought. He said instead, gradually walk into the river to ascertain most of these things before the exhibition. This idea did help me though I didn't visit that stream again.

Behold, I received the very bad news that shocked me, the stream killed my little school friend. A junior student and one that I took as a son. I learned that he visited the stream when it rained and they had a bet that he could maneuver the high water waves and all that. He jumped in and never was seen until his death. It was an unfortunate memory for me to date.

The last on my list is my graduation day in school. This came with a lot of sacrifices. The ups and downs that characterize a successful stay in the school environment. How I was able to press on to offset my tuition fees in every section. It was indeed a tasking moment for me.

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The graduation and convocation ceremony paid off and crowned all my struggles with success. At that time, I had to invite family and friends to come celebrate with me at this high moment in my life.

Inviting; @chilaw, @chima09, & @sweetest

Thank you.