I recently started drinking again after a long time of not drinking.
Yesterday, as I considered my glass of single malt whiskey, I remembered a friend who wrote about sleeping with random women. After I read his thoughts, I asked him why he did it, since he didn’t seem like the “promiscuous” type. He responded by saying he just wanted to feel something.
“Life is hard in Nigeria”, he said. “I go to work every day and am stuck in traffic for 3 hours. I don’t really connect with the people around me, so there’s no one to ask how my day went. Each day is the same. I needed to feel something.”
Most of us are trying to escape Naija. We drink. We pray. We have sex. We masturbate. We work. We party. We cook. We travel. We do anything to temporarily blunt the reality of living in a chaotic evil environment. A nation where mediocrity reigns and corruption is a culture. A country where good people don’t always win, and hard work doesn’t always lead to success.
People need something to break the unending sameness of Nigeria. We look for things to soothe the pain of being Nigerian, for we know not when things will change. We try to catch brief flashes of joy in simple or destructive things.
Yesterday, when I remembered my friend, I made up my mind to go back to the simple things that give me joy. When I’m lonely, I will call a friend. When I’m despondent I will listen to music. When I’m in pain, I will give. When I can’t take it anymore, I will travel to remind myself that I am bigger than Nigeria.
We try to break the unending sameness of Nigeria; to soothe the pain, for we know not when things will change. Click To Tweet