Daddy, come and see the house that I built.
John said to his father who was sitting with some friends taking some palm wine. Peter was silent about the call by his son.
Your boy is calling on you to come and see his newly built house, won't you go?
One of Peter's friends called his attention to his son. They all burst into laughter.
That's how he will be disturbing me while playing with sand. Don't mind him.
Peter dismissed the whole issue as he was making an attempt to fill his cup with the wine from a plastic jerry can. His friends insisted that they should go and see the house. He reluctantly concurred and they stood up to go and see John who was playing with clay and water behind the house.
On getting to the spot where John was putting a finishing touches to his duplex, his father and his friends were surprised with what they saw.
This is incredible. Paul, one of Peter's friends remarked with a wide opened mouth in surprise. How do you do it? he asked.
John explained the whole process. He mixed clay with water to raise the structure. He made use of some sticks carefully arranged to separate the first floor from the second floor. On the sticks were placed fresh slabs of mixed clay. After raising it to his desired height, he made use of some leaves and sticks to do the final roofing.
The appearance of the house was awesome. Paul could not hide his excitement at the creativity of the small boy when he asked about John's age.
He is 6 years old. Peter replied.
Children are gifted in many areas and it is good when they are monitored and supported to make use of their talents. Children like it when you praise or commend them for any small efforts they put in place to achieve anything no matter how small.
Paul took his time to advise Peter to pay more attention to his children's activities and never to ignore them like he attempted doing before they persuaded him to honor John's invitation to come and see his beautiful house. He shared his experience he had with his son who he and the mother forced to go to medical school. The son failed his exams repeatedly before being advised to withdraw from the program by the college. He then proceeded to pursue his passion which is music. He was so successful at music that his father was proud of his achievement all over the country and abroad.
Thank you very much. Henceforth, I won't joke with rendering support to any of my children trying to be creative in any way. Peter replied.
This was the genesis of the manifestation of John's talent.
While in year 4 of primary school, a science fair was organized by the school where pupils were asked to display their creativity prowess in the form of scientific innovations.
A few days to the event whose invitation cards had been sent to all parents including Peter, John was busy working with thick papers trying to create something.
When asked what he was creating, he pleaded with his father and other relatives to allow him to make his work secret to them only to be revealed on the day of the science fair. His family respected this and he was excused to do his work in the house store without interference.
He spent about 15 hours spread across five days to put his project together.
He wrapped it with a black polythene wrapper while taking it to school on the day of the presentation.
The hall where the fair was taking place was full to capacity with parents who came to watch the creativity of their wards.
John was the third person to display his project. He got a standing ovation when he unwrapped the flyover bridge built with paper. It was a replica of a popular flyover bridge in the town known to almost everyone in the hall. It was nicely designed to depict the real bridge.
John's project was declared the best and he won a prize for it.
One of the parents that attended the event snapped the bridge and shared it to her friends on her social media handles. The post generated many likes and comments. The picture went viral and in the process, a civil engineering firm picked interest in nurturing John's talent.
The firm awarded John a scholarship after their efforts to connect with the wonder kid yielded positive results. The scholarship covered his remaining primary education, secondary education and studying Civil Engineering in the University. The firm was a multinational and a dream company to most Civil Engineers.
John concluded his degree years later and never failed to display his talent in the area of road and bridge construction which was the aspect of civil engineering that he majored in.