It cost me a job offer.

It is in human nature to forget information previously held in the brain. It is easy to forget information when events have overtaken it. I think one of the exceptions is eating. When you feel the uncomfortable state of the emptiness of your stomach, you would be reminded that you haven't eaten.

I lose count of how many times I paid the price of forgetfulness. One that I would like to talk about happened a few years ago.

I was searching for a job after completing my one-year national service. I submitted applications to many organizations in Abuja. After a while, a school invited me for an interview. I prepared myself and went for the interview. On my way back home, I boarded a taxi. It was a journey of about 20 minutes, but that particular day, there was a very slow movement of traffic.

At a point, I noticed that the car phone charger wasn't plugged into a phone. I pleaded with the driver to let me plug in my phone, which was already down. The driver graciously agreed. I plugged in my phone, and we continued the very slow movement of the traffic. We have spent more than an hour in the journey.

A few minutes before arriving at my bus stop, I received a call on my second phone. The conversation on the phone continued till I arrived at my destination. With the phone to my ears, I opened the car's door and alighted without remembering that my phone was charging in the car. I got home before I could remember. I was very devastated. There was no way I could trace the phone. I boarded the vehicle along the expressway. I prayed that the driver saw the phone before other passengers in the car. The next thing would be for him to be so kind in reaching out to me to hand me my phone. In another thought, I tried to come to terms with the fact that the phone has gone and gone forever.

I kept dialing the number of the phone. It was off for almost two days. It started ringing in the morning of the third day. A man picked up the phone and identified himself as the driver of the vehicle that I left the phone in. I felt a great sigh of relief. It took me another two days to get in touch with him. He was out of town all those preceding days. I collected my phone with sincere gratitude.

The first thing I did upon getting the phone was to check my mailbox. I received an email from the school I went to for an interview inviting me for further discussion about the offer. I was told to come on the following day of the interview. A period that my phone was away. It was then I remembered that I told the head of the school that I was ready to take the job immediately during the interview session. I responded to the mail immediately. I asked if the offer was still available for me. Unfortunately, the position had been filled when, according to them, my phone number wasn't reachable, nor did I respond to my mail.

I felt very bad about the whole thing. I blamed myself for allowing forgetfulness to cost me a job offer. No point crying over spilled milk; I took it in good faith and moved on.

After many months, I got another job offer, which I accepted.