Hear me, I am not ready to be young forever.
In my country, everyone is running away from old age, it was the female gender before and now the male gender has joined. Filtering their pictures until their face looks like plastic.
Hiding their grey hair.
Lying about their age.
Injecting their face.
Doing everything to look 16 at 40.
Sincerely, not me.
Let me get old as I'm growing old.
Let me get old enough to have grey hair and not be ashamed of it.
Let me get old enough that my face will have lines that prove I laughed and worried, and still I lived.
Let me get old enough to sit down and young people will stand up to greet me.
Why should I be afraid of what I prayed for?
We pray every day that God keep we alive, God add more years to my life. Then when God adds the years, we start panicking that we are looking old.
To me, that not confusion.
I am tired of this fear of aging.
They told us getting old is ugly.
Who told you that?
They told us old age is useless and I asked, who told you that?
Look around you. A 20-year-old boy has energy but no wisdom and he will use his energy to fight everybody.
A 60-year-old man has wisdom and he knows which fight is not worth fighting. That wisdom came because he got old.
You cannot buy that in the market.
You can only get it by aging.
I want to get old so I can finally stop pretending.
When i was young, I pretend a lot.
Young people pretend you like people you don't like.
Young people pretend to laugh at jokes that are not funny.
Young people pretend to be strong even when you are breaking.
Young people pretend to fit in.
But when you get old, you stop caring and say what you mean.
You wear what you want.
You rest when you want to rest.
You tell the truth.
Old age is freedom because you won't agree with the wrong things that people say.
Let me get old and watch my children become adults.
What is more beautiful than a man of 50 watching his daughter graduate, watching his son start his own business, and saying, I was there and I lived long enough to see this.
Some people did not get that chance. Some died at 28 but at 40 they would have given anything to get old. And here we are, afraid of the blessing they begged for.
So no, I am not doing any surgery to look 20.
I will not lie that I am 28 when I am 40.
I will not be depressed because I saw one grey hair in the mirror.
If one grey hair comes, I will welcome it. Welcome, my friend. You are evidence that God kept me.
I want to grow old gracefully.
I want to grow old with stories.
I want to grow old with sense.
Because the alternative to getting old is not staying young forever. The alternative to getting old is dying young.
And I don't want to die young.
Let me get old, abeg.
Old age is not a curse.
Old age is a reward for those who survived what killed others.
So if you see me next year and I look older, don't pity me rather celebrate me.
It means I am still here.
How about you?
Are you ready to embrace old age?