THE MATCHSTICK Do you think you’re useless? If yes, then I have a story for you. We have all experienced that moment at least once in our life thinking that we’re useless. Of course, we’re not but we have thought it once. Two days ago, it was my turn to cook as my roommate and I do share the duty of cooking. He is from Somalia and I am from Nigeria. We were both from the same continent with different cultural values. We both respect our cultures and have better understanding of it. I was looking for a lighter or matches to fire up the gas stove, but to my surprise I couldn’t find any. Some students were cooking as I could see some pots on the gas stove in the common kitchen of my dorm but there were no students to be found. I asked some smokers for a lighter at least smokers carry a box of matches or a lighter with them, but unfortunately I couldn’t get one. None of them have it on them. So, while I was looking for it I noticed a matchstick lying beneath my room entrance door. Oh! This would surely work fine and serve my need. I lit the matchstick from the flame of another stove and lighted mine. After this scene, I couldn’t just stop thinking about what happened. Someone dropped a matchstick and didn’t even bother to pick it up as if it had no value. I wondered how many other people might had seen it and thought it was useless. Or perhaps they might not have even considered its usefulness at all. To those who saw it and left it on the floor, it was useless. This particular story has a correlation to our lives, too. People might abandon you now, they might not even notice you, but I want you to know that you’re not useless. You’re useful because you’ve a purpose in this world. Even if just to light up another person’s day just like the matchstick lighted up my gas stove that’s enough. Consider also that sometimes even if we don’t think we are useful we might have said or done something that affected another in a profound way that we might not even realize. You’re special and you’re not useless even if some people think you are. -MOAB © 2014
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 13:00:40 +0000