It was a wet Sunday evening. The ground was covered with mud, and refuse littered the sides. People went about their normal activities, and there were traffic of human and vehicular movements. But somewhere on a particular spot, everyone seemed to look down longer than usual. I got to the same spot, and I looked down.

There had never been a sight so dehumanizing, so awful than the sight of that. It was the sight of a young girl, so malnourished, so shabby, so unfortunate --and maybe illiterate. Her eyes were slightly opened, her lips parted with tongue looking whitish. Sticky saliva coated the corners of her mouth, one of her arm crossed the side of her neck and the other almost supporting her head like one under the innocence of sleep.

She was all wet, motionless, and skinny --most likely from the dehydration of a decomposing body. Swarms of flies hover all around her. She was dead. The most dehumanizing, debasing, and agonizing death. What could have happened? What killed her? There were no cut in her body, no injury to suggest an attack or accident. And who would dare tell us what snuffed the life out of her?

Dear girl, poor girl. That was the end of her story. How did she lived when she lived? What were her pains while she breathed? Did she suffer hunger, neglect, or torture? Maybe she grew up having little or no faith in herself. But wasn't she capable of becoming someone great during her life time? Everyone who saw her quickly ignored her and moved on. It had seemed like nothing really happened.

Death is something that will happen to everyone, but the privilege of life is the story we choose to tell about ourselves during our lifetime, and which would be our closing page the day we breathe our last. Some have mastered the art of living and have become successful. They are the ones with the big names and great personal aura; the ones we hoped to become like --so it seemed.

But then there are those who are struggling at the bottom. They have no education, no shelter, and even suffered ill health. And if these were not enough, people despise them, and deny them. It seemed like life itself rejects them. They cry, but no one listens; they beg, but we turn the other way.

Many people do not know what it feels to live in abject deprivation. Yet, there are those who have known denials and poverty all their lives. These ones just wished they were never born. It seemed they never get to do anything right. Everywhere the shadows of failure trails them. Or maybe it is just their mind believing so.

The truth of the matter is we are all born equally by the same humans with the same physiological makeup. But are we all the same? No!! The reason been that whereas some choose to just exist, others choose to live. Both choices come with a cost; the difference been that one is deliberate, and the other is indeliberate.

Every human is special and valueable. Several bus stops after I saw the lifeless unfortunate young girl, I saw a young mother holding her new baby to her bossom. These later individuals seems to attract the admiration of all --the beauty of the mother and child, the wonder of creation. But would we think that the dead girl was not born by a mother, and that she was never a child? Far from it.

Truth is, she probably was never taught to see that she was valuelable and precious. Now her human dignity had been destroyed by the unfortunate event she allowed --knowingly or unknowingly --to play out in her life. Somewhere too, someone is been celebrated by us not just because life's situation is treating them right, but also because they believe they deserve to be treated better.

How can we then attract favorable situations into our lives? This should be a matter of the mind --belief. What you believe about yourself, is what you will see happen in your life. You only attract into your life what you --consciously or unconsciously -- choose to attract, by what you choose to believe. So the next time life isn't treating you right, put yourself in the position where your value would be recognised. It's all a matter of belief; a decision to see yourself as that person who deserves best. And in a matter of time, the world will equally see what you see about yourself.