King Duncan to Macbeth (in the presence of Lennox, Malcom, and Donalbain, Banquo, Ross, and Angus when the King paid the highest honour of visiting Macbeth for helping to defeat rebel Macdonald and the Norwegian forces): O worthiest cousin, the sin of my ingratitude even now was heavy on me. Thou art so far before that swiftest wing of recompense is slow to overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, that the proportion both of thanks and payment might have been mine! Only I have left to say, more is thy due than more than all can pay.
It was a great delight listening to Pharm Chuks Enomate as he emotionally quoted King Duncan from Shakespeare’s Macbeth Act 1, Scene 4. Pharmacists are usually broad-spectrum in application, literary arts inclusive! Chuks has expressed gratitude for my mentorship and support of him in many ways than I can recall. Sometimes, I wonder what I did for him that was more than I did for many others. Today, he paid a surprise visit with his children to my lab office.
Show of gratitude by former students and mentees is not a rare occurrence for me, and I suppose many other lecturers. Although there may be one who backstabs and badmouths their mentor, the grateful ones are usually far more even if they do not have gifts to present. Like grateful King Duncan, who rewarded Macbeth with the Thane of Cawdor, Chuks brought me very expensive gifts. A lecturer’s emotional bank account can be fat. Why should I regret being a lecturer, the poor pay regardless?
May Pharm Chuks and his ilk who put smiles on the faces of their former lecturers have greater capacity to give more expensive gifts in the future. Much more, may they also be honoured by their mentees.
Please do not ask me if I have behaved like Chuks to my own lecturers and mentors. Just know that I am happy!
Ray Ozolua
