Sweet Sixteen (16) Chapter Three - "THE WORK" Comprehensive and Concise Summary

It wasn't a week aliya returned back home from school that she got her daddy to sit with her and thanked his dad for the gift (Camera) and the letter. She told her father there were part of the letter she did not quite understand but want him to explain.

After morning prayer on saturday morning. Aliya went down to the kitchen to make tea for her father. Her mum boost that she was the only one who knew how to make her husband's tea. Aliya insisted on making dad's tea. After she done making her dad tea, Dad take a sip and said it was good. Aliya mum look at the tea she make and said that couldn't be true about what her dad said that he only said that to make her feel good.

About an hour later, aliya went to clear away the tray but the tea was still there gone cold and the milk congealed. Aliya asked her dad why he didn't drink his tea, and he said that the milk was too much. One day, aliya's mum took pity on her as she decide to show aliya the secret behinde how she make tea for her husband. Aliya's mum went on and teach aliya the secret in making the tea. After three attempt, aliya became expert in making tea for her dad.

Aliya loves her father and will do anything to please him. She attempts severally to make his tea but she doesn't get it right until her mother puts her through. In this chapter she learns to make his tea perfectly and while he has his tea on a Saturday morning, she has a discussion with him concerning future ambition and other things.

Aliya informs her father she doesn't want to be a doctor anymore but a lawyer. In previous years, Aliya has wanted to be a pilot, then a musician, a songwriter and afterwards a fashion designer. Now she wants to be a lawyer. This depicts the indecision that comes with choosing a career at a young age. As a child grows, he must have has a lot of ambitions that probably changes every year but according to Mr. Bello, it doesn't matter what the choice of career is, what matters is having love and passion for what one does and only then can one be successful.

This leads to the discussion about parents choosing their children's career. This is not always a good idea as such child is only pursuing his parents' dream and not his dream. This in the end will only spell doom for both parties and lead to a waste of everyone's time if the child decides to follow his dreams afterwards. Mr. Bello is of the opinion that children are educated in order to obey their parents because the parent have more experience about life and to be able to think for themselves and parents must learn to listen to them. Mr Bello further to explain what he had learn from "Kahlil Gibran" book "The prophet", A lebanese poet who died in 1931.

Afterwards Mr. Bello laments about the negative effects of technology on the young generation. Technology has most effects on reading habits as most young people prefer visiting the social media and surfing the internet than reading books. This has reduced their thinking capability, spelling and language skills.

Sweet Sixteen "A coming of Age Story" by Bolaji Abdullai