Everything happens for a reason

That’s what you old folks always say

But this is my own opinion

Things don’t happen for a reason

They just happen and for no reason at all

So please don’t tell me that everything happens for a reason

How can you say my situation happened for a reason?

Remember, I was just twelve

Yes, of course, I was just a child

Just like your children,

Just like your daughters

I was still in school

And I was in standard seven

I wanted to go to secondary

Especially the boarding schools

I wanted to be a doctor

I had goals I wanted to archive in future

But within a blink of an eye, everything falls down

Just like the wall of Jericho

Just like any other day, I was on my way to school

The same school I went to every day

The same road I used to pass every day

This is the part I fail to explain…

Not because I forgot…

But because my eyes are filled with tears

My whole body is paralysed

And no words can come out of my mouth

Because I couldn’t believe what happened at that particular moment

A man who is older than my dad… raped me!

Now I’m 21, living with HIV and AIDS

The baby couldn’t make it

Oh! poor guy, thank God you’re in heaven

My people in the village made me abort it

Because I wasn’t mature

Even if I’m mature enough, I can’t keep the baby of a man who raped me, I swear!

So they made me drink some unknown leaves, abortion pills and stuffs

Still, the damage was done

I don’t trust my health anymore

I always got sick at school

So I’m a school dropout, if you can call it that

Now something that happened ten years ago

It still affects me now mentally and physically

Now seeing my friends living their dreams

Tears run down my cheek

Wonder why I didn’t become one of them

I’m selling sugarcanes to at least buy a bar of soap

My dreams turned into nightmares

So please don’t tell me that my situation happened for a reason

It’s just like an insult to me

Remember, I was just twelve.