Today I learned a valuable lesson. One I would've never been able to learn without this dreadful experience. I don't need to elaborate on the lesson, anyone who reads this will surely pick-up on it.
There I was in my early twenties. I just completed my graduation and started searching for a job just like all the other individuals of my age. I was never a hard worker, to begin with. I have always been the one who used to take the easy way out. I used to always look for shortcuts whereas the people around me worked with great dedication to earn their place in this world. And that was initially my undoing. I soon realized that there are no more shortcuts to success anymore. I was an adult man who went through over sixty-six job interviews only to be rejected. Each company wanted something that I lacked, and that was the experience. Everyone used to tell me how I should stop looking for shortcuts for everything in life. They used to tell how tough life is and much tougher it can get given the opportunity by not working hard. Many of my peers found a job within two to three months whereas I was getting rejected by every company I came across for about two years. My family was supportive at first, but eventually, they realized how incompetent of a son they had raised. The only one to show me the most support was indeed my best friend Nizamul. At the time he had to leave town for his training at the academy. He had a dream of becoming the world's greatest detective, just like Batman. Nizamul went to the academy to train under the finest detectives in the country. We used to exchange emails every week to let each other know of our individual experiences. Nizamul used to tell me all about his fieldwork, the cases he helped solve and his ongoing investigations at that time. On the other hand, I used to tell him all about my failures, job rejections, my family's poor financial state. My family was falling under poverty due to my expenses not meeting up to my father's pensions. After waiting for what seemed like a whole eternity, I came across an ad for high paying labor work in China. The job didn't require any sort of training or experience and it also promised to send money to my family every month for as long as I work. The job however required the knowledge of knowing a bit of Mandarin. So, I took their contact information and applied for the job after finishing a course on Mandarin for two months. I said farewell to my family and left for China to start my career as a laborer there. I found this to be the appropriate shortcut to success as I would no longer have to worry about carrying my family's burdens on my shoulders. As soon as I had reached China, they sent me off for a medical test along with several others. The medical test required blood and urine samples. After the medical test, the selected men sent off to a highly guarded facility in outskirts of the town. We were told to wait in a room as each of the workers was given a uniform and sent inside to get their designation. I was skeptical at first, but I had convinced myself had I was worried for nothing. The men that went inside didn't come out when asked the guard told us that they were sent off to their work stations from the back door. Soon it was my turn next. As soon as I went in, I saw some men carrying weapons and tasers along with some doctors who were wearing surgical masks. They told me to lay down on the bed there. I did as instructed and laid on the bed. They tattooed a number on my neck which was my serial number. I resisted for a bit but, I was knocked unconscious due to an injection on my left arm. As far as I know, I was labeled as experiment number 6366. There were countless others there just like me. I was kept in a cryogenic pod for what seemed like thirty-nine days. But as it turns out, I wasn't taken out of it every day, I was taken out every year. I didn't see any sunlight for thirty-nine years. I wasn't even fed. They used to keep me alive with nutrients injected into my body. But despite all my suffering I only had one concern on my mind and that was my family's wellbeing. They used to do lots of experiments on me every single year. Turns out, out of all the countless men brought to this place, I was the only one who's blood was compatible with the chemicals they were working on. I'm the only test subject that lasted thirty-nine times and was still alive for more. I was their most prized possession whereas the men brought along with me were long dead before me as their blood was not compatible with the chemicals. After thirty-nine years I was finally rescued by someone I thought I would never get to see and that person was none other than Nizamul. Turns out, he was investigating this case for quite a few years now. Nizamul started this case as soon as he found out I was missing for such a long time. He spent most of his career looking for me, even if it's just a dead body. He had hope that he'll one day find me and he did that indeed. When I opened my eyes in the hospital, he was standing right beside me, asking the doctor about the state I was in. When I first saw him, I couldn't recognize him at first. But as soon as I saw his smile when he saw me, I knew it could only be one person. He told me everything that happened and everything he did for me for the past thirty-nine years; taking care of my family, searching all around China, filing this case several times to keep it active. Hearing all that I only said one thing, “Bro, why did you do all that for me? I'm a lost cause. I deserved to die for always looking for the easy way out." he just smiled at me and said, “You may be a lost cause, but that doesn't mean you can't be rescued by the world's greatest detective." At that moment I realized how wise he was for having ambition and what a fool I was for trying to find the easy way out of every situation. It was a lesson I learned that I can neither deny nor forget.
It is really good lesson for everyone to learn. Hard working is the worship of success.
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