It was the most dreadful day of my life. The day was important for me because I had my first job interview appointment and so I was pretty excited and woke up even before the sun came out. I dressed in my finest suit, a white shirt and a black tie, and with a rapturous mood headed towards my destination.

I started my journey, as gracefully as the morning mist. As I reached half the distance, I felt torrents of rain cascading upon my car’s roof. I hesitated and prayed for it to stop. It was getting heavier and heavier with each passing minute. The clouds growled and lightening flashed as if it didn’t like my prayers. Strong gusts of wind tapped my car, wanting to come in. Gales blew the branches of trees and I became ever worried for there were left only 15 minutes in the interview time.

Just at that moment, my phone rang. It was my mother. I received the call and consoled her that I was fine.

“Wait for the rain to stop. It’s alright to be a few minutes late,” suggested mum. But I did not pay any heed to her advice, instead continued my journey, anxious not to become late for the interview. I drove faster and saw that the sky was getting darker. Many vehicles had stopped by the roadside, perhaps waiting for the heavy pour to stop. However, I kept on droving my car as briskly as possible, ignoring the exceedingly wet climate and trying to keep my nerves intact.

Suddenly, I came to a halt and found out that the whole traffic was jammed because the road was flooding ahead. I was horrified and regretted that if only I had listened to my mother and stayed on that same shallow road, I would have only been late.

I saw many trees were blown away and there was nowhere to go. Moreover, I could have an accident by driving speedily on a wet road. Thank God, my car had not skidded as the road where I was stuck was very slippery. I repented this act of mine and also learnt that no matter how old we get and how educated we become, we should always listen to our parents and value their suggestions.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 10th, 2016