Say it now, before regret says it for you.

Many years ago, in one of the short holidays in my senior six, I went to visit a friend of mine. He was a year ahead of me, in his vacation. He was very close to me then, and being great at math, I wanted to tap into some of that knowledge for myself as I prepared for my final exams. 

After a great day of discussion and calculations he suggested that we visit his former classmate. A girl who lived downtown but a walkable distance from where we were. I couldn’t say no, after all I had finished my revision for that day and didn’t want to get back home early. Besides, you can’t pass the opportunity to be in the company of a chic. I mean, I studied in a single school. We only saw those birds once in a while, out the windows of the school bus. 

Anyway, we arrived at the girl’s place, let’s call her “Mercy”. Mercy was a nice-looking, talkative and fun girl. I could tell, because she had said a thousand words before we even took our seats. 

For the next 30 minutes or so, Mercy and Silver were deep in conversation, joking and laughing, mostly about their school times and old friends. Meanwhile, I sat silently ,occasionally smiling, but mostly tapping on my mapeesa phone that I was holding at the time. 

When it was time to go, Mercy offered to give us a push, after all she had some things to buy at the trading centre. She closed the door behind her and followed us into the dusty path that led to katakwi town. 

On the way, Silver received a phone call and had to step away to talk. I kept walking slowly side by side with Mercy. Suddenly, Mercy asked, “Chris, how many languages do you speak?”. 

It was so abrupt and unexpected. 

“I don’t know maybe three or four that I can speak fluently”, I answered and continued to list them. 

“Wait”, she interrupted. “So, you cannot use any of those languages to say a word to me?”.

I was speechless.  I smiled and muttered some words but I am sure she did not hear anything. At this time Silver was making his way back to us and immediately continued with Mercy where they had left off from. I was silent the rest of the journey, but my mind was racing, a mile a minute. I kept wondering what I should have said to her.

Of late this story has been on my mind a lot. In restrospect it was a piece of advice from Mercy. If you have the tools to do something why not use them. I have the gift of speech, and I can express myself in more lanaguages than an average Uganda. That already is sign.

Mercy is just one of many examples. And, you might get me wrong becuase I used the example of a girl. This cuts across professional work, entreprenuership, social life. Everything. A simple conversation can be the start of something big.

What about Gaster? A lab attendant I met one evening because I had gone for a medical check up. For some reason my test results returned negative, even though I was quite sure that I was not fine. He could have easily pocketed the lab fees and sent me on my, but he actually struck a casual conversation with me. I cannot remeber where we started. For the next few minutes we talked casually and I found myself revealing about about my work schedule and career as a web developer. At the time I was working on one of the biggest projects of my life and I had not had the time to realise how it had started to change my lifestyle to the detriment. It turns out I was just fatigued and burnt out. I really needed to rest. That was the simple diagnosis.

It has been more than 2 years since I met Gaster, but he is still my friend. In fact he is a software developer too. I turns out he was a medical professional with a passion for software and he has sicne become a full-time developer, creating software products in the medical field. He has been one of my valuable and inspirational friends since then. I hope that I have been the same to him. He has introduced me to other amazing people that have shined more light on me. But this all started with a simple unplanned conversation. He had nothing lose if he had let me go.

So, for long I never really thought about the person next to me, even when I really should have, unless it was someone I already knew. I have made the decision not to do that again. I do not want to suffer the pain of regret anymore, however mild. If there is something worth saying, I’ll say it. If you are worth talking to, I’ll start with a “hi”. We’ll see how it goes, or if it even goes.

I’ll say something now, before I let regret say it again in future.