I Finally Went Home

Good morning readsters. Merry Christmas my wonderful read family. I'm sure Christmas is in full swing over there, it is over here, the dancing, singing, fireworks, merriment and so on. I was planning to be very active on the platform yesterday as I had been so active this week. Unfortunately, my health deteriorated even further; not a good time to be sick, eh?

The school had officially gone on break about a week ago, but I had no intent to go home for the festivities due to some complexities, and up till yesterday morning, I was determined to do so. I woke up feeling really sick, so much so that I couldn't get out of bed all day. I really needed to put my room in order, my kitchen was a mess and my clothes had it worse.

By evening, it was clear that it was in my best interest to go home, as I'm almost the only one in the hostel and if my health was to go critical, there will be no one to help me out. I dragged myself out of bed and cleaned myself up. I did manage to get home and I think it was a good thing I finally stopped been stubborn and came home.

Along the way though, I kept reflecting on my experiences like always and here are some of my better thoughts

1. Christmas: As the vehicle I boarded weaved past the traffic, I couldn't help but notice gatherings of merriments all along the way. I have nothing against those. Christmas has always been associated with a lot of eating, drinking and merriment, but I couldn't help but think, how many of these people actually understand the significance of this season, of what it represent, of what happened?

I didn't need to talk to any one of them to know that for the majority of them, it was just another holiday; it could as easily just have been Independence Day to them and nothing more or worker's day even, just an holiday really, nothing special.

I'm not against merrrying, of course that comes with celebrating, but take some time today and reflect on what Christmas is supposed to be, what it means and why we commemorate it. It won't be the same for all of us, that's why I'm keeping mine to myself. Don't let the be just another holiday, you're not that shallow.

2.Greed: In a season that should be associated with giving, the human nature of greed was again on full display. Due to the mass movement of goods and people as a result of the festivities, there was no shortage of commuters and the bus drivers took advantage of the situation (as usual) to hike the cost of transportation as much as 3X to 5X of the original price.

Of course, a lot of people, myself included had no choice but to pay the hiked fee, but I couldn't stop wondering about it. It's not like it was going to cost them any more to cover the route then it usually did, and if so, it would have been very little. What then warranted the undue and arbitrary hike in transportation cost? Human greed, and hey before you forget, it's supposed to be the season of love and giving, how ironic!

Staying True To Self: There's something about the festivities that just brings out some of the worst human behaviours in people. It's Christmas Eve, and here in Nigeria, it's marked with wanton merriment in the midst of friends and family, with brilliant displays of fireworks and the likes.

That's all good. The problem is, most of the times, a lot of people know fully well that the level of wantonness at hand is more than their pocket can carry, but due to their pride, quest to belong and approval, to keep up appearances, they will spend above their means, all for a moment's pleasure; something they will end up regretting for at least the entire month of January.

The sad part about it is by January 2nd, everybody would have forgotten your 'exploit' or lack of it. It begs the question, why all this then? Why try to be something or someone you're not at your own detriment? It makes no sense to me, never has, never will. I'm going to leave it here and catch some sleep.

Once again, I wish all of us a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanks for reading