Good morning, Staff and students of Jesuit Memorial College.
My name is Umeh Chimamaka, and I stand here before you to present the virtue of the week: Gratitude 
Dear friends, every day we wake up in the morning and often times we ignore the fact that some people did not make it through the night. We go about our daily lives and receive generous acts of kindness from our peers, teachers, and people around, but we may not appreciate them. We sometimes are not conscious of the fact that some people have no one to love them, to care for them, to even be kind to them. Man have fallen into depression due to lack of love and affection in their lives. Some have gone ahead to commit suicide. Meanwhile, those of us here come to school after our parents have worked tirelessly to do their best for us, but we waste our time and spend it lavishly on irrelevant things. We take many times for granted and break rules and disobey and struggle to do the most basic of things required of us. These are signs of living the un-grateful life.
We may not know it but in our everyday lives, anything could go wrong. You could be walking to the dining hall, slip on some water and sustain some injuries. Things happen every day around us. In December 2024 we heard how many children died during stampedes because they came to collect free food. Hunger and poverty and bad governance have ended their lives fatally. We heard how severally people were kidnapped when they were traveling to their villages to celebrate Christmas and New Year with their loved ones. But we have not experienced majority of these because we stand here alive and well, so we should be very grateful. My dear friends, I repeat, we should be grateful for being alive.
We have many reasons to be grateful. Some of them are really small and cute. When you finish a class and that your friend goes out of their way to help you carry your desk back to your classroom. When you come to the dining hall late because you were arranging your class, and your table member saves your night-cap. Or even when you fall sick, end up in the clinic and when you come back, realize that your classmate helped you to copy the notes of the class which you missed. When you are having a bad day, but you find someone to listen to you, in the way that Fr. Uche listens, sees you cry, and gives you enough vibes and hope for the next day. When you are stressed and go out for sports and your team wins. When you study hard for a CA and the result comes out making you smile.
But there are moments we have been carried away and are ungrateful. When our parents struggle during hard times and pay our school fees, yet we come to school and play all the time. We are keep getting in trouble for the littlest of things like coming out late, cheating during CAs or not observing laid out protocols like grand silence, and just refuse to be silent and reflect on our day. When we intentionally disrespect our teachers who work hard to teach us and explain difficult concepts to us. When we fail to listen to instructions. When we talk and disturb at Mass and morning prayer. When we do not respond to prayers. When we make fun of school authorities and the rules they put in place for the smooth running of the school. When we do these and more, we are living the un-grateful life.
When we respect school rules, follow set guidelines and do simple things like obeying grand silence and sitting still during morning prayer to meditate, we are living the life of gratitude. When we work hard and use our study hall time well, we are being grateful to our parents and teachers. Furthermore, living the GRATEFUL – LIFE involves learning how to constantly appreciate people around us for all they do. The grateful life requires us to have the language of gratitude on our lips as often as possible. My friends, we all need to cultivate the practice of saying THANK YOU! Thank you, just two words. It does not take so much out of us to be grateful. We can grow into making it an ordinary part of our lives to always, always say thank you. It is effortless.
Simple sayings like, thank you Lord for laughter and joy, thank you lord for safety and protection. Even to friends, thank you Cherly for helping me carry my desk. Thank you, Zara, for caring about me. Thank you, Amanda, for helping me copy my notes. Thank you Upright for explaining that concept to me. Thank you, Tolu, for singing for beautifully at Mass. Thank you, Naoma, for being such a kind usher. Thank you, Daniel, for playing the Sax and making our worship livelier. Thank you, Ruona, for being so observant and ensuring some students get food in the dining hall. Thank you Fr. Uche for your touching homily. Thank you, Nurse Oluoma for being so gentle when giving us our medication. Thank you, Mr. Jijingi, for the wonderful drama. Thank you, Mr. Jackson, for the food you always put before us. Thank you, mommy, for all you have done for me. Thank you, daddy, for the new iPad you got me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Just show appreciation for the little things that people do for you because they care deeply for you. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE AT JMC – ALL OUR STAFF MEMBERS AND TEACHERS – FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO FOR US HERE.
Ingratitude is the mother of all vices, so it is very important to show that you are grateful to others as well, not only by word of mouth but by action as well. Smile, give them a hug or help them with something in their own time of need, so that you constantly remind them that you thought much of their act of kindness towards you. With this, we all remain grateful for everything and everyone we have encountered or experienced.
Lastly, listen closely once again; Be grateful; for your parents, for your friends, for memories, for experiences, for laughter, for joys and for obstacles because an adventurous or eventful life is better than that which is flat. Thank you for listening and have a wonderful week! THANK YOU!