LIFE BEGINS AT FORTY

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know you are here for the interview but I have come to tell you the interview is over, and to announce the results.”

I paused to enjoy their reactions. They had come in tight suits and pants with edges that could slice an apple; shoes so polished that I could see my reflection in them; everyone appeared neat and prepared. I felt mischievous.

“The interview is not about to start,” I continued, “it already held while you were coming here. The taxi men, the street hawkers, the road side mechanics, the beggars, the passersby… they were all the interviewers – they are our people disguised that way so we can see you in real life situations.”

I paused again to see their reactions. They looked dumbfounded, still yet to comprehend what was going on.

“We knew you would prepare for this interview, you would give us structured and well-tailored answers but we want to see the real you. You are going to be representatives of this company and who you are when no one is watching, is important to us. Our interviewers have done a great job and we have your results.”

I could hear their heartbeats. No one knew how he performed because it wasn’t a conscious interview. I decided to ease their tension a bit,

“You see, most times we get so busy about who we will become and what we will achieve that we forget who we are now and what we can achieve now. We talk about what we will do when we graduate, when we get married, when we retire … just as you prepared how you will answer questions when you get here. What we often forget is that, life itself is what we are living, not what we will start to live when we have what we want, or when we clock 40.”

I paused again to ensure that they assimilate what I just said while I prepared to explain further.

“We have good plans of how we will be benevolent and impart the society when we start earning good pays, forgetting that our N50 today can make someone’s day. We work hard all year round, believing we will spend quality time with our family when we retire but it doesn’t always work that way. By the time we retire, the family could have grown apart and children wouldn’t delight in spending time with fathers with whom they were never friends from childhood. We get busy bagging degrees, thinking that when we reach the peak and become professors, we would have time to start the NGO, we’ve always dreamt about, which would feed the poor and help the disadvantaged. But by that time, other responsibilities and ambitions show up and we delay the dream further till it can no longer be accomplished. Then, we tell our children the story of how much good we could have done – but didn’t do”

They were very much engrossed so I summarized it all,

“Life does not begin at 40 or any other age. It has started, you are already living it. Live it right – now.”

As I watched them absorb everything I had said, I felt fulfilled. I just made good an opportunity to impact the lives of people I might never meet again. I excused myself and went in to check if my boss had finished his breakfast and was ready to conduct the interview. He had asked me to find a creative way to keep the applicants busy while he had his breakfast.

I went back to address the applicants who by then, thought less about the interview and more about their own lives.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” I said with a smile, “the interview commences now. Applicant number one, you will be called in, in a minute. Good luck”

How else could I have explained the delay?