The Word ‘Puella’, By Nebo Peter

This Latin word ‘Puella’, meaning in English ‘girl’, was a word of many colors which we used to our advantage back then in our senior secondary to coo and woo girls.

To the uninitiated girls that we used this word on, we used this word to either express our feelings of dislike, approval, or to conceal our sanctimonious jokes or jests of the girl or girls in question before us while leaving these girls or that girl in utter confusion of what we meant by this Latin word.


One day, Sam, a friend of many years and an Enugu brought up dude, made a glorious catch and wanted me to follow him to check out his new found girl at QRC, a popular girls’ secondary school in the metropolitan city of Onitsha. Sincerely friends, as we approached the corrugated gates of QRC ‘liver’ began to cut me-as the slang used to go. I lost count of all the beautiful romantic words I had crammed to pour out should in case any beautiful girl showed up. To Sam I was the Commander in- Chief of the Federal Republic of Girls, but right inside of me I knew I was a glorified toothless bulldog.

Also, back then in School, our ‘El-Classico’ group would usually meet at a corner to discuss our various escapades especially those we had with girls. Some of us who had never courageously talked to a girl talk more of having that free conversation, like me, would boast of this and that girl just to keep the discussions going, to the extent that one of us made caricature of himself one day. My brother…my sister, to be left out in such discussions was to be seen as a ‘Jeew guy’, and ‘Jeew men’ were not tolerated in our circle.

But then the real shooters amongst us didn’t always talk, and Sam was one of them. He was a special breed in girls’ special assignments. He could stand tall before any girl and talk shoulder to shoulder with her. No girl was a nightmare before him.
And so we trudged into QRC……. As we entered the hallowed ground of QRC, Sam whose hopes on me as girls’ no.1 commando urged me to be on the lookout as we made our way straight to a small corner where he would meet with his new girlfriend. QRC was such a beautiful and well planned school, and the girls’ students then had ended their classes for the day.

Calmly, we waited for Sam’s new Cinderella.  Just as our tensions were beginning to grow high, two beautiful damsels in their fifteens came out from an adjoining student block adjacent to us and walked straight to meet with us. One of the girls whom I had long forgotten her name was Sam’s new girlfriend. She was beautiful, 5 inches tall with flattering looks and shape. The other one, whom because of my close encounter and affinity made me remember her name vividly, was ‘Chioma’; meaning in English-God is awesome. Chioma was beautiful just like her friend, but dark in complexion with gap teeth and a flashy pointed nose that revealed truly the awesomeness of God.

So, as Chioma and Sam’s new girl came and stood before us, Sam opened the floor, did the necessary introductions and lured me seconds later through artful and masterful compositions to initiate discussion with Chioma whilst he attended to his new girl.
“Nnaaa…ehn”…. I was short of words where to start with Chioma. Her beauty was deeply mesmerizing. Her beauty was conspicuously torturing, and for minutes there existed a deep silence between me and Chioma.

Seriously….eh, I didn’t know where to start. To start with, “Hi Chioma, you look so great. Can we be friends”, I thought it was yet too early. To start with, “Hi Chioma, you look like an angel from the Mississippi Kingdom…” I thought it was way out of fashion as even the courage to utter these words was definitely lacking.

“Nna…” such was my first feministic outing. And to make matters worse, Sam was busy fondling, jingling, gangling and chatting vociferously with his new girl while their ‘Imilimious’ laughs and romantic super touches were seriously dealing out several Bolshevik blows and Michael Tyson’s binocular punches to my incompetence, and for minutes I stood aghast. And when finally it seemed as if was painting Sam’s confidence black, and I could see disappointment of me in his face, I mumbled one or two words, and the last I managed to say before we left was, ‘Sam, nwanne…..amaghi ma o buzi ‘Puella’ a na-atichizi mu akpiri , biko megodu ka anyi puo ka m jee gote ogwu’, (meaning in essence and to Chioma’s non-comprehension as if I was having sore throat and needed to go and buy medicine), “Sam, please I do not know if this ‘Puella’ (Chioma) is the cause of my dumbness here, please do fast so that we can go and I buy medicine”.  

Lessons

In life, there are two things that will make you masterful and powerful. The first is: knowing your strengths and weaknesses. The second is:  a constant study of the universal laws and principles and applying these laws and principles.

On the first master plan, do not let people’s negative thoughts and sentiments about you derail you from pursuing your dreams and purposes. While you improve on your strengths and weaknesses never be dismayed by untold acts of insubordinations towards you. The fastest route to self-destruction is to be swayed by what others say or think of you. Follow your dreams. Don’t follow the crowd. The crowd would confuse and dissipate your energy. Your dreams would energize and hydrate your influential capacities. And whilst you follow your dreams examine your life daily and pitch tents with the best available kinds of supports for your spiritual, material, social and financial growth. The reasons why we fretted and gagged on so many things while in school were partly because of juvenile delinquency and most importantly because we allowed others wrong and unproductive thoughts and sentiments control our actions.

Secondly, as we used the word “Puella’ to conceal our most hidden intentions before girls so you must understand that life too has its lessons and secrets hidden in the universal laws and principles. To pass through life’s universal school of time and space, energy and motion, success and demotion well equipped, you must acquaint yourself practically with life’s unprecedented laws and principles. The law of Perpetual Increase, if you diligently study and apply it, would teach you that the more you save, the more you seek, the more you have, the more it will be added unto you. The law of the first Principle would teach you God’s sovereignty over all things and for you to secure the foundations of all your undertakings you must dedicatedly and with a humble and submissive spirit offer to God alone the first fruits of all your undertakings. The Law of Aerodynamics would teach you Possibilities in Impossibilities and that Faith answereth all things. The law of attraction would teach you that you attract to yourself whatever your dominant thoughts are. The Law of cause and effects would teach you that for every result there is always a corresponding action. The Law of Dynamic symmetry would teach you unity in diversity, and that you are a billion cells made of one. And so on.

Finally, great things are often achieved by paying attention to small details. Do not wait until you travel abroad to live the life of your dream. Do not wait until you amass the world’s fortune before you celebrate your existence. The life you have is now. Pay closer attention to the environment around you. Take out time to relax. Take out time to enjoy and celebrate with those that God has put around you. Take out time to watch the beautiful moon. Take out time to watch the beautiful skies. Take out time to watch the flowers blossom. Take out time to watch the waters roar. Take out time to watch the birds fly. Take out time to pray and meditate in the watches of the night. Take out time to watch the ants in their little fashion. There are great and valuable lessons you would learn from all these than just spoon-feeding over didactics that offer little or no help. This is your life. Live it. Love it. Appreciate it.

Nebo Peter is a motivational writer and entrepreneur