My father called this morning to talk about passion, talent, and something else I am yet to find a name for. He talked about limits and distractions and a few other things I don't remember.

My father is an intelligent 'ol'young' man, a carpenter who grew without a vision. He had a talent in repairing electronics even though he was not proud of it. He wanted to be something else.
He only grew learning to climb palm trees, make oil out of the fronds and body oil out of the kernel. He learnt hunting and firewood fetching to feed the family because he was the first child.

Back then at Central School, Mbaise, there were four students who were popular for being the most brilliant in a number of villages in Mbaise - my father was one of the three boys. There was just one girl.
After his Common Entrance Examination, he won a scholarship to study in a particular school with the other three students, which after they would become teachers but because things were too hard, he 'left' the scholarship for his brother who was a year behind him thinking it was the way it worked.
He sold his Common Entrance certificate and went to Aba to stay with his Aunt who was running a restaurant at that time but returned after a year when he realized he was only wasting his time.

Because there was no fast means of communication, my father came back to the village to learn that his younger brother whose common entrance certificate had also been sold had been taken to Lagos to learn trade. Fortunately for him, he met a family friend who was planning to go to Lagos and sent a letter through him to the man in whose custody his brother was in.
My father left for Portharcourt afterwards to learn carpentry work from his step brother who made him go through hell and back because he; my father, was the first to buy a bicycle in their family.
One day, my father went to work for a man in his house and left without his pay. He wanted​ to. He felt the man was old and needed to be showed kindness. A month later, my father had a fight with his brother and left the house in tears when he came across this old man. He took my father to his house, gave him a room, some money to buy a mat, pots, plates and food stuffs and afterwards took him to his site.
The man gave my father some money to buy tools to work for him.
Because my father hadn't learnt to construct and fix doors and to do the ceiling, he visited another site where a work was going on and acted as though he had came to inspect the carpenter. He learnt to do them in less than one week and soon, he became one of the most sought after carpenter in Echee.
When work began to go well, my father sent for his younger brother and was planning to put him in school when his stepbrother struck him...
My father ran for his dear life back to the​ village after rumours carried that his stepbrother was after him. He lost everything.

Because he decided he was going to start life again, he went to stay with his 'Mechanic' uncle in Igbodoo-Echee, Mbaise, where he was forced to learn mechanic.
One day while his brother was away, he got some planks and carelessly constructed a center-table. A passerby saw this and came to commend him.

"I thought you came to learn mechanic. You should face carpentry works, that's your talent." The man told him.
My father nodded in an affirmative way just to make the man go but he stayed. He stayed to say that there was no good carpenter in Igbodoo-Echee and the people went to Aba to buy furnitures. In his brother's absence, the man asked to give him a house and a shop and the necessary tools needed to start work but my father insisted that his brother be told about it first.

My father became famous for his works in Igbodoo-Echee and soon, jealousy began to dig a hole in his brother's heart when rumours carried that the man was planning to give his daughter to my father, to become a proud father in-law of the famous carpenter in Igbodoo-Echee.

One day, his brother came to say my father was needed in the village and went down with him only to get to the village to say that my father would loose his life if he showed up in Igbodoo-Echee again. Him, the brother, had been admiring the man's daughter.

After my father lost everything in the village, he went to live in Enugu state where he began to explore his talents.
Again, he became popular for repairing electronics and for wiring. He built/wired a radio station he called 'Radio Nigeria' but because he had no one backing him up, it died, his dreams died.
He would have risen to start again when he made money from the repairs but no, he got married. He went into bakery.
My father built a bakery in Enugu state which he called the 'Golden Child.' He made bread, chin-chin, cakes and a lot of other things and he got most of his employees from his village. Because he did, a man paid one Mr. Emeka to go ask to work in the bakery and when employed, try to run down the business.
Emeka after discussing with a few other employees, about all they stood to gain if the bakery went down, succeeded in running it down and again, my father lost everything though the reason behind the downfall was unknown to him untill two Decembers after 'we' left Enugu state.
On that day, he was on his way back to Owerri from Enugu when he learnt from a phone call he received that Emeka had been detained in prison for buying a stolen property. He bailed Emeka and gave him some money to take care of him back there in Enugu while he continued in his journey but to his surprise, Emeka visited weeks later​, with knees on the ground and thick tears running down his nose and cheeks to confess but then, everything had been lost in the fire even the ashes, too, had been lost to the air.
In Owerri, my father lived on his capentry, wiring and and sometimes, on his mechanic job. Then, he began to seek for ways to go back to the place where he first met himself; repairing electronics, but couldn't.
...

It was the first time my father was opening up on the story of his life and from it, I learnt things and lessons I never knew of.
I learnt that because family will always be fine, most times, there are opportunities family should never keep you from grabbing.
I learnt to decide where I want to be and where I need to be.
To make sacrifices. I learnt to give and do not because I have enough but because I need to. That no single good we do in this life goes away.
I learnt to take even the slightest chances as opportunities to learn - Self development.
I learnt to be ready. To take my sun with me everywhere no matter the weather.
I learnt that what will hurt most are not the things you didn't get right with your talent but that you didn't try at all. That talents have nothing to do with passion - passions fades and talents die when you stab them real hard.
Talents gives 'life' to life. It gives fulfillment.
I am a proud daughter of a carpenter and an electrician.