I was the fifth and last child of my parents. My dad, a disciplinarian and my mom, a prayer warrior. We were all brought up in the way of the Lord and the first two rows of seats in our local church was unofficially reserved for my family. Being the last child, I experienced more freedom at home than my siblings did when they were my age. At thirteen, I could use my father’s car to run errands, at fifteen my brother bought me a playstation3 and that limited the number of chores I had to do at home, after all my name was Jack, and I needed a little play in my life. I lived a clean, great life but people kept bringing troubles and woes to me. For example, at fifteen, I had sex with my girlfriend and the silly girl got pregnant. I had to quickly take her to a doctor whom my friend told me about to abort the pregnancy. The other time,I went to chill with my friends, they knew I was the one driving but they let me get drunk, and on our way back, I mistakenly ran over a young boy, killing him. Because it was in a busy area, I escaped and my friends swore never to tell anyone about that incident. I was only lucky once when one of our church members tried to blackmail me into accepting that I was responsible for her daughter’s pregnancy. My mother gave the Lady a cheque and that was how the matter died. Gradually, I lost face in my family and nobody took notice of my activities anymore. My father even said I’ll be lucky if I see my fortieth birthday, what with the kind of lifestyle I portrayed. My mom was constantly worried about me and on one of my moody days, I noticed that her drug cabinet was now full. I got admitted into Igbinedion University after three years at home and I blended into the campus lifestyle immediately.
I met Imaobong in one meeting for Akwa-Ibom and Cross-river students on campus. She was the definition of calm and I quickly remembered one Bible verse I stumbled upon once while trying to get a topic for morning devotion at home. “ Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies”.I paid rapt attention as she explained the measures we needed to take as individual students and also as members of the Akwa-Cross community to ensure we make a good name for our people back home. At the end of the meeting, I made my way to where she was, to congratulate her on her speech. Luckily for me, Our treasurer and also the school football team captain was there to make introductions. “Eh Imaobong, Sese eyen-eka nnyin mi, Jack, our top striker. Obongowo, sese obufa secretary Akwa-Cross nnyin mi, ekere Imaobong”. “Mme nneke mma speech afo tutu." I said, and watched her cheeks turned pink. We went on to talk about a lot of things, academics, sports etc. Holding her hands and looking into her blue eyes, I said “I don’t think we need to titrate but I can feel this chemistry between us”, “I like you Imaobong”. She withdrew her hand and waved me off, “I’m late for a tutorial, we’ll see” and with that she left me.