A lesson for Thelma: living right

A lesson for Thelma

The forewarning

Thelma was a young girl of 16 years who gained admission into University to study Mass Communication. She came from a comfortable family where she was the only child and so she was cherished but disciplined. Before leaving her home in Abuja for Lagos, her parents had warned her about all the distractions that could entice her in the university. They had also warned Thelma to be careful about the friends she kept. As we all know, bad company corrupts good manners. Thelma solemnly promised her parents that she would make them proud and she would watch the company she kept while in school. Thelma’s parents knew they had trained their daughter well and so they thought they had no cause for alarm.

Life on campus

Unfortunately, Thelma's parents they were wrong. Thelma got to her school with the notion that she was at liberty to live however she pleased. She believed she was free from parental guidance. After all, she was almost an adult. She threw all the words of counsel her parents had given her to the wind. Eventually, she got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Patricia and Judith were twin sisters who studied Mass Communication too at the University of Lagos. Both came from very rich homes and they were spoilt kids who lacked manners. They thought the world revolved around them. They noticed Thelma in their class one day when she was talking noisily at the back of the class though there was a lecturer in the class. The twin sisters decided to make Thelma part of their little gang.

Temptations

At first, Thelma was reluctant to join them especially when she found out they were ardent clubbers, alcoholics and drug addicts. But they knew she didn’t come from a rich family and so they used money to entice her into joining them. Eventually she did. Because of their wayward lives, their academics suffered and again Thelma was worried about her poor results. Patricia and Judith told her that with money, even good grades could be bought and they continued living reckless lives. Several times, they were warned by friends to desist from their bad behaviours but they turned deaf ears to these warnings.

On February 14, they planned to attend a Valentine house party which was to hold somewhere on Lagos Island. When their hostel matron saw them leaving the hostel at 11:45 pm, she called them to her office. She spoke to them about the dangers of such late-night outings. After she had talked a while, Thelma decided that she wasn’t going again and she would begin to live responsibly. Patricia and Judith were bent on going. Though the matron tried desperately to dissuade them from attending, they walked out on her. They eventually left for the party.

The Aftermath

At the party, due to the influence of alcohol and drugs, things went south and Patricia was gang-raped to death. Someone alerted the police and they showed up, determined to arrest the rapists and the other party-goers. Judith quickly left without Patricia and drove off with some of their friends in order to escape the police who were chasing. Due to reckless driving and the fact that the person driving them was drunk, they had an accident and they all died.

When the news got to Thelma, she knew she had cheated misfortune by an inch. That taught Thelma to live right and heed good counsel. If she hadn’t, well, she would have ended her life miserably just like Patricia and Judith.

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