About 16 years ago, I was invited for a written test by a national newspaper to which I had applied to be taken as a reporter. I was working for another national daily and was so much desirous of switching to this publication. The attraction was both the pay and professional visibility.
We were only tested on essay writing; an opinion piece on the legality and morality of security agencies enforcing decent dressing. This was against the backdrop of the controversy trailing a widely reported incident of police officers harassing some ladies for alleged indecent dressing at Aba or so. I did my best, and my expectation was high. I had never failed to excel in any essay test, whether for academic or job purpose. So, my hope soared very high. But then in this hope lay my pain as well.
You may ask why? My hope heightened my anxiety as I waited everyday to be contacted and invited for an oral interview by the newspaper. It was not forthcoming. As days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, this hope was diminishing and with it my anxiety was subsiding. Soon after, I chanced upon an insider in the newspaper firm who informed me that the company would not invite any of us for any further recruitment process having resolved not to proceed with the recruitment for financial reasons. Guess what, whatever that was remaining of my anxiety disappeared immediately. This is simply for the reason that the hope that once nurtured it had become extinguished. From the hindsight, I now feel much grateful to this informant and would have loved it if he had come through much earlier to spare me the agony I went through earlier when my hope was at its crescendo.
In our hopes and expectations lie our fears and anxiety. Everyone who desires happiness must take cognisance of this truth and try to navigate the tricky reality. Yes, tricky in that while our hope may cause us pain, we still can’t do without hope. We need hope to be able to thrive in our social pursuits, as one without hope lacks the motivation to endure difficult circumstances. Hope is the spiritual fuel that energises our determination to weather the storms of life and wade through difficult tasks. Absence of hope is despair; despair kills determination, and without determination nothing is guaranteed to be achieved.
But then hope needs to be tamed a little. Too much of it may harm us. It may rob us of our peace of mind as we wait restlessly to see whether our hope will materialise. It may also turn us into fanatical optimists who do not know when to stop hoping and accept an unpleasant reality.
The foregoing underlines the reason we must approach hope with some caution. Hope is a virtue to the extent it is necessary to keep us determined without despairing. But it becomes a disease when it deprives us of our peace of mind or render us unrealistic optimists.
Let’s hope wisely because in our hope also lies our pain.
Henry Chigozie Duru, PhD, teaches journalism and mass communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.
It is hope that keeps us alive. Every morning we all wake up with the hope that our today will be better than our tomorrow. Sometimes, it is not so but becoming hopeless means you have given up and the battles you face have won. This can lead to despair and depression. We all hope for a better Nigeria but year after year, our government extinguish that hope and so many have lost hope in the nation.
Hope is really a disease when it deprives one of his/her peace of mind, but is the anxiety that comes with hope ooo