I Known I Have Grown!!!

There is one thing that so far, I’ve come to dislike with passion. As in, it’s been happening so often that it really irks me. However, the majority of the people who do this thing are older people, so punching them in the face might not be the best way to go about it. And as a result, I simply smile and nod at them, hoping that the conversation will be over as soon as possible.

But then the irony of this is that when people around the same age as I am say these same things, I don’t really have an issue with it. Maybe because they don’t really dwell on it the same way that older people do, they simply make the observation and move on to the next thing. That way, I don’t really have to think about it or how angry it makes me. So yeah.

And what is this habit I’m talking about? When people comment on how much I’ve grown. Many times, seeing elderly people I knew as a kid, I try to avoid them because the conversation is usually around the same thing. “You’ve added”, “You’re now a big boy”, “See this small boy of yesterday”, “See how your voice is thick”, “And you’re a fine man ooo”… on and on it goes.

And for some reason, I find these things condescending. Like, we’ve not seen each other in 10+ years, what were you expecting? That I’d still be the same lanky teenager? It gets even worse when they try to guess where I currently am in life. Either to know my school, NYSC status, or even the job I’m doing. Note, though, I said guess, not ask. Instead of asking, “What are you doing now?” They’ll say, “you should be in 200 level now, abi?”

And when I remember that the last time I saw these guys, I told them I had gotten admitted into the Higher Institution, it gets kinda frustrating. And if you talk for an hour, you’ll spend 30-45 minutes of it talking about your changes and all, and if they knew other members of your family, they’d ask about them. And then, they’d go down memory lane about how you used to be a stubborn child, running around the streets playing football. Yeah…

As I said, with people closer to my age, it’s different. Because they keep it brief, “Bro, you don fresh ooo!” And that’s it. Or, “You’ve added ooo,” and it ends there. The entire conversation won’t be centered on how much I’ve changed. But on more important things.

Thankfully, though, not all the older people do this. There are those whom I meet, and they’re genuinely interested in the stages of my growth, and we have deep conversations. They want too know ho school life treated me and ho I’m adapting to the labor market. How much shege the economy is showing me and the plans I have to better my life. Then, they share some advice as well. This will always be better than talking about how much I’ve changed, how I seem more mature now, and how I’m not a small boy anymore.

I don’t know if I’m the only one who has been experiencing this, maybe it’s just the kind of people I have in my life. Well, at a point, it gets frustrating. This thing happened this evening as well, and I decided to come and rant here. Maybe there might be people who enjoy such conversations, but not me. And I’m slowly getting to my wits’ end.