If you are not in a post of responsibility, you may never feel the pressure of taking an important decision that could undermine you’re reputation. In lower classes, when I committed crimes and I was reported to the authorities, I thought that the person was wicked. But last year, I was made school prefect and it was from then that I began to feel the pressure of responsibilities. Three months after being handed over the post, I was faced with one of the greatest decisions to take in my life.

I had won the elections with overwhelming support and many expected me to be different from my predecessors who were unjust and wicked.  I wanted to be the people’s men so I tried my best to do everything to be fair, just and still maintain my high reputation. Maybe due to that some people took advantage of this. There was a huge carnival in town and it had excited many of my friends. Since we were in a boarding school we were not allowed to go out but many planned to break bounds. I heard it but since I was not sure, I placed a deaf ear to it. So I went to sleep. I got up in the middle of the night and to my greatest surprise half of the dormitory was empty. As a prefect, I had to search for them but to no avail, they had gone out.

In the morning the news spread like wildfire. The whole school had known, raising my momentum. My classmates had come back and they learnt that I knew. This divided me into two; should I save my classmates or do my job? I knew that if I protected my classmates the news would reach the principal anyhow , which would have been a serious blow to my records, I could even lose my post and many of the people who had seen in my a change would have lost confidence in me  but if I reported them I would lose many friends and my life in the dormitory would become unbearable. The decision was to be made and I finally reported them. The consequences were hard; 2 were dismissed and the others were given maximum suspension and a week of hard labor.

Of course they were so angry with me including some who thought I was becoming a ‘‘reporter.’’ Some even said I was the principal’s eye or robot and so many other hard words. I felt really bad about it, apologizing to them but in the real sense I had gained a lot of respect. People discovered that even though I looked kind I could become really hard if I needed to. Others were relieved that I was what they expected: a symbol of change. I was even awarded a precious and great prize by the principal for being the best prefect.

From this experience I learned a lot of things. I learned that in life people would not always be on your side but you must learn to do with it. Everything you do will not please everybody but that is life. One thing I really remembered was to always be firm on your decisions no matter what happens.