Needs and Wants

Bimbo was at home on the 14th of February (valentine's day) preparing to start her daily activities, she had earlier hoped that 2021 was going to be the year she'd feel loved and celebrated on that day. The previous year had been the worst year she had ever experienced, losing her mum who was the breadwinner of her family to the corona Virus was the most devastating thing she had ever experienced, she was just a year old when her father died so she did not really know what it felt like to have a father. She automatically became responsible for her siblings and had to be the strong one in the family.

On a normal day, valentine's day won't have really mattered to her, seeing that it was just a day, but this time, she craved the attention of someone special, someone that would celebrate her and be proud to show how much he loved her to the world. Instead, she knew that she would spend the major part of the day selling Lacasera and Gala to motorists on the busy streets of Lagos. She exchanged her thoughts to a neighbor who just happened to pass by at that moment. The neighbor laughed at her and called her naive, he said that only little children take valentine's day serious. Bimbo felt so little and unseen, she felt that probably her neighbor was right, so she spent the day thinking of how to be less naive while hawking Lacasera and Gala in the hot sun.

Bimbo's case is just a scenario I created to shed better light on why valentine's day matters to some people. For people like bimbo who have lost the people they love the most, the desire to feel loved becomes more obvious on that day to them probably because of the way they see the way other people are being loved on that day. For some, it's just the need to feel part of the multitude, to just do something that every other people are doing so as not to feel left out. For some, it is a day to show their loved ones how special they are to them, to publicly or privately express their love. while for others, it is just a day.

It doesn't really matter how you feel on that day, whether you want to be loved and all, it doesn't change the fact that it is just one day. That doesn't negate the fact that how you feel matters, but love isn't a one-day thing, love is a continuous thing. The need we feel to experience stuff doesn't just stop, for Bimbo who feels the need to feel celebrated on that day, that need won't stop on that day, she might probably end up feeling the need for someone to take some of the load off her back, her need might change the following second, hour or day.

Needs and wants are a constant thing, the need for food, the want for Jollof Rice. It changes every day. Whenever you feel the need for anything be it love, attention, time, food, water, do not berate yourself, do not look down on yourself, do not let what other people think get to you. Recognize that needs and wants are valid, no matter how trivial it might feel to you. Valentine's day has come and gone, whether your needs were met or not doesn't matter, just know it wasn't meant to be. Keep on recognizing your feelings, keep on acknowledging why you feel the way you do, keep in mind that other people's needs might be different, always keep in mind that your needs and wants are essential to you, and never let anyone take that way from you. Your only focus should be how to make your needs and wants happen.