By Oluchi Omai
Every morning at exactly 9:00 a.m., when other students had already been seated in their classrooms for nearly an hour, Jerry stood before the cracked mirror nailed to the wall of his small room.
The mirror had a faint brown stain in one corner, but Jerry never looked there.
He looked at himself. Comb in hand. Music blaring from his phone. Shirt half-buttoned.
Hair carefully sculpted like he was preparing for a red carpet instead of a mathematics test he would miss again.
From outside, neighbors could hear him singing along to the latest hit songs, his voice loud and confident, sometimes even dramatic. In the evenings, the same ritual repeated: dancing in the courtyard, headphones on, lost in rhythm.
And strangely, his mother never said a word.
No shouting.
No scolding.
No, “Jerry, you are late again!”
Nothing.
That silence was heavier than anger.
At school, teachers had stopped asking questions. His classmates joked that Jerry lived in his own timezone. But what none of them knew was that his final exams were only weeks away.
Soon, secondary school would end.
Soon, real life would begin.
And Jerry had no plan.
Or did he?
Sometimes, late at night, when the music stopped and the house was quiet, Jerry would stare at the ceiling. The smile would fade. The confidence would dissolve. In its place, something else crept in. Fear.
Because beyond the mirror and the music, there was a question he never answered:
What happens after this?
Jerry was not alone.
Across the neighborhood and across cities and countries, there were thousands like him. Young people drifting through their teenage years, resisting school, rejecting apprenticeships, refusing to learn a trade.
Books bored them.
Skills felt “old-fashioned.”
The effort felt unnecessary.
The world of social media promised shortcuts. Fame without foundation. Money without mastery.
But the world outside the screen does not run on vibes.
It runs on competence.
One afternoon, Jerry returned home earlier than usual. The singing did not start. The music did not play.
His mother was sitting quietly in the living room, holding a letter.
It was from the school.
She handed it to him without a word.
Final exam eligibility warning.
Jerry laughed at first. “They always say that.”
But that night, for the first time, the mirror did not comfort him.
He imagined graduation day without his name being called.
He imagined friends moving on to University, training programs, and jobs while he remained.
He imagined waking up at 9 a.m. not to prepare for school, but because there was nowhere to go.
And then another image appeared, more terrifying.
Years passing.
The same room.
The same mirror.
But older eyes staring back.
Will Jerry change before the exams?
Or will the silence of his mother become the prophecy of his future?
Because silence can mean two things:
Either she has given up on him…
Or she is waiting for him to wake up on his own.
What fate awaits a generation that refuses both education and skill?
When industries demand expertise.
When automation replaces unskilled labor.
When opportunity favors preparation.
The harsh truth is this:
Without knowledge or craft, options shrink.
And when options shrink, frustration grows.
When frustration grows, blame follows.
When blame follows, societies fracture.
That is the danger.
But the circle can be broken.
Not by shouting.
Not by humiliation.
Not by comparing one child to another.
It breaks when:
• Schools connect learning to real-life purpose.
• Parents replace silence with structured guidance.
• Young people see role models who built success through skill.
• Communities value apprenticeships as much as degrees.
• Curiosity is rewarded early.
• Small wins are celebrated before big failures occur.
Most importantly, it breaks the moment a young person understands that discipline is not punishment; it is freedom delayed.
The next morning at 9:00 a.m., the neighborhood listened.
No music.
No singing.
Just the sound of footsteps, earlier than usual.
Was Jerry finally on time?
Or was it too late already?
The door closed.
And the future, like the mirror, waited to reveal what kind of man he would become.
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