One of my big regrets in life – and I don’t have many of those – is that I cannot speak Arabic. Yet I lived in Saudi Arabia for years! The excuse I have always used when asked is that because we lived in an expatriate community, I did not have proper chance to learn it. Baloney! Yes, we did live an exclusive life, but hey, I worked and interacted socially with Saudis and others Arabs. I held good cards but did not play them well. I was brain lazy and simply content to learn enough to get by; especially when out shopping. Shukran!
Opportunities often come to us disguised as hard work so most of us don’t recognize them even if they are staring us in the face. If only I had listened to Churchill who warned that the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity while the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Accepting that I am a pessimist is rather hard to swallow. I always prided myself as an optimist.
Count yourself lucky if you still have the chance to recapture lost opportunities. I know a lady who at 42 is trying to pick up the shattered pieces of her education. She dropped out aged 15 because according to her, she was surrounded by discouragers. “My mother never believed that I could amount to anything and because she did not go through school, felt that neither I nor my siblings should do so.” We all ended up doing menial and boring jobs.” But the sun is rising again for her. She is now attending night school and tackling her O-level papers one at a time. I have noticed that her hitherto stooped shoulders are getting straighter and there seems to be more bounce in her steps.
I will not live in Saudi Arabia again. I might never speak fluent Arabic. But I am determined never to allow good things to pass me by again. I will give every chance that life throws my way the best shot. I will forever remind myself of the Arabic proverb which says that “four things come not back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity.”
So watch out Mr. Opportunity. If you are flying by, I will jump high and grab you. If you are at ground level, I will stoop and pick you up. I will even develop eyes at the back of my head so that I can spy you. Any way you come, I will be ready.
And so should you.
