Life brings us down unexpected journeys. I have never kept pets before, but this was about to change because I was entrusted to procure ants on behalf of my primary school.

Not gonna lie, I was super motivated to helm this because my son’s in Primary 1. He would be a direct beneficiary of my efforts.

John was very helpful in guiding me along. I tasted failure barely one week after I had started the project. The queen ant died and was covered in mould. Guilt and despair besieged me, stabbing me with their pitchforks. Also, I needed time to process the acid of my turmoil pooling at the pit of my stomach. It was honestly hard for me to get any sense of closure because John couldn’t enlighten me on the reasons why it had perished so suddenly.

Compounded with my sadness, I felt stressed about trying again.

Thank goodness John gave me a replacement queen ant for free.

Thank goodness for my son who was so enthusiastic about keeping ants that I refrained from wallowing in self-pity and mustered the courage.