DIARY OF A JACKSONITE 💙🖤 Peckie🌟🌟🌟

PECKIE
025 JACKSONITE 💙🖤✨

In a class room, you can find a lot of personalities. The cool. The intelligent. The beautiful. The famous. The charismatic and the notorious. Then there are other students who simply don't get enough attention. They just come and go. Their voices are almost never heard and their faces barely noticed. Why are they so, insignificant?

"Hi," a cute and smallish caramel brown girl with lovely glasses broke my chain of thoughts unexpectedly. She smiled and I smiled back. She was one of the personalities of my class that stood in the shadows of the prominent few. Like me.

"Hello," I said and tried to match her face with a list of names my course mates answered. I couldn't pick one though.

"Can I sit here?" she asked kindly.

"Sure," I said and let her move behind the desk and sit beside me. Then we continued our wait for the MAC 222 lecturer.

As we waited, I observed my companion, out of habit. One minute, she was scrolling through memes on Instagram. The next moment, she was tilting her phone and smiling for a selfie. Again, her face struck me with familiarity but I was sure I had never encountered her before.

After twelve disappointing minutes passed, I gave up and picked up my phone. I would continue my wait on Whatsapp. I began to view statuses. I clicked on Peckie's contact and was puzzled when her meme posts were exactly what my companion had scrolled through earlier. Strange, but social media does make the world a tiny place.

She laughed beside me and I looked up. I watched as she screenshot a meme and quickly posted it on her status. Immediately she did so, Peckie's status updated and guess what? It was the same meme!

"Peckie?" I called quietly and she looked at me. I smiled brightly. "You're Peckie! You're the one that chatted with me about the comment I made on the class group chat."

There had been an argument on the group chat. A friend of mine was at the receiving end of a backlash she didn't deserve. I had risked getting dragged by siding with her. I had been dragged for it. It had never happened to me before so I felt bad, until a number tagged Peckie had dmed me and commended me.

"Oh. It's you." Her face lit up with recognition and I held her hand ecstatically.

"Finally. I'm meeting you," I cried triumphantly and we giggled. To be honest, it felt surprising that I was still making acquaintances with my course mates in 200 level. Well, the thing about mass communication is its number.

"Yeah. Me too. I suspected it was you," she said.

"I didn't. I was expecting someone else who always talks in class. But, you don't talk as much as you do on the group chat," I said and remembered how the name Peckie first registered in my memory. She always had a funny remark to make on the class group chat or a moustached emoji to place under a lecture alert.

"No, oh. I like to keep things low key. Let the popular kids grab the attention," was her reply. It startled me because I had been thinking of the same thing earlier. Some were more significant than others in every classroom. Is this true though?

The much I knew about Peckie was from viewing her status. She always had a funny meme to post or a lovely song to sing. Her posts also hinted on her deeply spiritual nature. One minute, she could be posting, "Forget relationship. Don't you like fried rice?" The next, she's posting a Bible verse or the lyrics of a religious song. Then, let's not forget how much she loves to take facies. Those are special selfies she takes of her face. She adores them and I have a pretty good time viewing hundreds of pictures of her cute face.

Besides her posts,we had chatted a lot on Whatsapp. She was very fun to talk to when she wasn't busy posting memes. And more memes. She had shared with me that she loved lying in bed and pressing her phone, at times even in the face of a dangerous exam. She also loved reading short stories and had talked so much about a short story that she read in a bookclub group chat. I still remember her words, "Chai, so unfair.

I really don't know what all these stupid guys who gets involved with two or more girls at a time really gain from it, not to talk of two sisters!"

I had laughed and told her that it was just a story.

Being a single child, I couldn't help admiring friends who had siblings they loved so much. You can imagine how fuzzy and warm I felt whenever Peckie posted about her siblings. She basically couldn't live without them.

Now, glancing at her quiet self beside me as the lecturer finally arrived, I couldn't believe that she was the same. So, we have online and offline personalities, right?

What a surprise when during the lecture, Mr Aloy diverted from Digital Media and began to speak about joining a school club or organization. He clamoured inspiringly, "This is the best time for you to build yourselves. The university environment is full of opportunities for self development. Stop searching for party updates! Make a name for yourselves now; the labour market is difficult. Join an association. Volunteer! Learn a skill. Establishhh!" he had stressed and some of us had laughed.

This issue always got me worried. Deep down, I felt like I was wasting my years in the varsity by not scrawling my alias on the table. It felt worse looking at some of my course mates who had attained political offices, won scholarships or participated in international sports tournaments. I felt so...  Insignificant.

"So, what club do you want to join?" I asked Peckie after the class hoping she shared my enthusiasm.

"Mm. I don't know. I'd rather just view statuses all day," she said.

Me too! But that would mean learning under the shadows of the prominent few, the elite Jacksonites. And I wanted to be somebody! Why didn't Peckie?

"Not everyone can be great, I guess," I whispered to myself as I returned to my lodge. I felt even more disappointed when Peckie posted on her status that if she was asked in a vox pop an exciting milestone in her life, it would be her matriculation she would talk about. This was followed by a dozen facies.

So, she just preferred to post memes, be friendly in the group and sing worship songs?

Sadly, Peckie didn't share my perspective of greatness. I chatted with her less as I brooded over how to become an elite Jacksonite. I didn't miss her status updates though. She was the Queen of memes, and I was her faithful subject.

Along the beads of her posts, I noticed she liked to post pictures of herself with another course mate, Lorenzo. I had observed that they were good friends. I didn't know the nature of their relationship though and it got me curious. We all like to know the latest couple in class, don't we?

My curiosity drove me to storm Peckie's dm one evening when she posted a cute video of her and Lorenzo. I texted, "Awwwn! Do I hear wedding bells?"

Her reply was a laughing emoji with the words, "It's not what you think."

What was it then? 

Determined to find out, I smiled knowingly at her whenever she passed by with Lorenzo at her heels. She would simply laugh and hold my hand. Then we'd chat a little. I finally got the chance one football match to ask her.

"You posted another picture, Peckie. Are you sure it's not a wedding? I would like to be in the bridal train," I teased.

She laughed her cute laugh and said, "I'm telling you. We're just friends."

"Very close friends. You two have been together since first year," I said hoping she wouldn't drop the topic.

"Yeah. It was actually second semester. I met him on my way home one day. He looked rather sad so I decided to say hi. It was just greeting a course mate but then we began to talk. He was very nice and funny. We clicked instantly and have been friends since then," she narrated to my awe.

"Why was he sad when you met him?" I queried.

Peckie folded her legs on the concrete and said, "Students are going through hell these times. You'll be surprised how many of our course mates are suffering, but they hide it all and show up for classes with smiles on their faces."

I sighed. Peckie was concerned about our mates who were having a hard time while I was concerned about not holding up a certificate of merit. Peckie chatted cheerfully on the group chat while I shunned those who weren't elite. I may want to be great, but Peckie was already great.

Peckie was kind, spirited and helpful. She loved to share a laugh if she could. There was no dull moment with her and to be honest, a day could feel less dreadful thanks to a smile from her lips. I had tried hard to find signs of mood swings or personal difficulties. I almost doubted Peckie had ever faced a challenge, because how can someone be so kind and supportive in this dreary and unkind country?

That reminds me of my first question. Why are the not-so-famous students insignificant? They're not. In fact, they're just as important as the cool, intelligent, charismatic and notorious students. That's because everyone brings something to the desk no one else can. We may not have the same number of talents but we're all special. We just have to look away from the shadows others cast and walk in our own sunlight.

Peckie was an elite Jacksonite. Her smile was her medal. Her laughter was her trophy. Her heart was gold.