Write a story, real or imaginary which ends with "I then realized that it pays to be disciplined".

Answer Details

THE HARD WAY

Everyone in our neighbourhood knew me as the boy who did exactly as he pleased. Rules, to me, were nothing but chains meant for weaker minds. My mother pleaded with me, my teachers warned me, but I brushed their words aside like troublesome flies. I slept late, wandered into class long after the bell, and spent my afternoons roaming the streets with friends who admired my daring. Discipline, I told myself, was only for the timid.

The turning point came in my final year in secondary school. Our class was preparing for a crucial mock examination that would decide who would be presented for the WASSCE. While my serious classmates buried their heads in their books, I boasted loudly that I would pass without stress. Night after night I chose football and film shows over my revision. My friend Emeka begged me again and again to join his study group, but I only laughed at him and called him a dull bookworm.

The examination came upon me like a thief in the night. As I stared at the question papers, my heart sank into my stomach. The topics looked familiar, yet the answers danced beyond my reach, mocking my idleness. My hand trembled as I scribbled half-remembered points that led nowhere. Two weeks later, when the results were pasted on the notice board, my name sat shamefully at the very bottom of the list, and I was withheld from the final examination. Emeka, the very boy I had mocked, stood proudly at the top of the class.

That night I could not sleep. I remembered every warning I had ignored and every precious hour I had thrown away. Something inside me broke, and then it hardened into a decision. The next morning I drew up a strict timetable, swallowed my pride and asked Emeka to let me join his study group. I trained myself to rise before dawn, to read steadily, and to walk away from the friends who had once cheered my laziness. It was painful at first, for old habits do not die easily, but I held on with clenched teeth.

Slowly, my efforts began to bear fruit. My grades climbed week after week, and teachers who had long written me off now nodded at me in surprise. When at last I sat for the WASSCE and passed with flying colours, the tears of joy in my mother's eyes were worth every sacrifice I had made. As I looked back at the wasted years and the bitter shame that had finally rescued me, I understood, at last, everything my elders had struggled to teach me. I then realized that it pays to be disciplined.