Welcome to Expelessons
Scenario 1: Molly
I love dogs. They're my favourite pet.
I love other animals too: cats, bunnies, birds etc.
Dogs excite me because of their ability to learn over time.
I had a dog, Molly (of blessed memories). As a pup, it stayed indoors with us.
It was my first pet and I didn't know how to train a puppy; I acted only on the little knowledge I had from how my parents raised me (query: African parents child upbringing).
Molly was fond of messing up the house with urine and faeces and I was forced to always clean up after it… until I had enough.
I couldn't let it continue that way as it spoke bad about me as a pet owner. I had to do something.
(Enter violence)
The next time it messed up the place, I took the cane my mum used on us to flog it (an action I don't fancy now) in hopes that it would know it was doing the wrong thing.
Each time I corrected it, I'd show it where it could drop its faeces and urine.
One month later, Molly no longer messed up the house.
What changed?
Scenario 2: My Cousin
We moved over to our house sometime in 2010.
It was difficult changing environments then for me (I was just 11). I got separated from most of my childhood friends.
The new residence was in a very quiet street. The neighbours were almost always indoors. The only sounds you could hear during the day were the cars passing on the road.
It looked like the perfect “getaway” location from the noisy estate we lived in before until the rains came!
Once heavy showers poured down, the roads became flooded. The only thing you could see from upstairs was just water (reminds me of how the earth was in Genesis 1).
With the flood, it was difficult to differentiate between the road and the (deep) gutter.
I had this cousin who always visited us during the holidays. On the day she was set to return, it rained… HEAVILY.
She got to the street and was a little distant from our gate. I came out to the gate to help her navigate through the already flooded road.
As she kept following my instructions, she missed out on one and you can guess what followed…
She fell into the gutter! With her bags.
(I'm feeling very bad writing this because she may read this)
She got up immediately with her soaked body and bags and finally made it to our house.
Six months later, during another holiday, she visited again. Same events as before (heavy downpour, flooded road etc.)
This time, she didn't need me to come out to the gate to help her navigate.
What changed?
What is Expelessons?
I suck at giving names to things (maybe)
But after careful consideration of what I'd love to write about in this newsletter, the best way I know how to write is to tell stories of my experiences and extract the lessons from them.
The two keywords here are Experiences and Lessons.
Do the maths:
EXPE-riences + LESSONS = EXPELESSONS
I just took you through a quick masterclass of how I come up with names for stuff based on the purpose I want to achieve.
Back to Expelessons…
There's a popular quote:
“Experience is the best teacher”
That's only true when you reflect on the experience and draw out the lessons you need to learn.
These lessons prepare you for the next encounter of that experience or even something greater that may trigger the memory of that experience.
For example:
In Scenario 1, Molly no longer messed up the house because it knew that it would go through pain if it did.
In Scenario 2, my cousin didn't need me to help her navigate through the flood anymore because she'd already had a mental path of the road after her first experience.
Experiences can be good or bad but one thing common about every experience is the lessons you can learn from them.
On this newsletter, I'll be sharing so many experiences of mine (past, present and future), and that of other people.
Each experience will end with a lesson you can always use to prepare (or protect) yourself.
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