For the African child that stays far away from home in the university dorms, you know that your enjoyment at home is limited to maybe like the first week or the first three days where you family members coo at you nonstop. Exclaim heavily at how fat or slim you look depending, and then pour excessive love on you like you’re a long-lost child. They get you whatever you want, and your siblings are happy to go on errands for you.
All of that lasts a total of three days, before you’re now turned into the unpaid family slave.
Just kidding, it’s not that bad.
Maybe.
Anyway, the point is that you have very limited time to enjoy the holiday in style as far as you’re staying with your family. So, you’ve got to seize the opportunity for enjoyment when you can. Me, on the other hand, my primary reason for coming back home for the holidays was to rest. I was tired of seeing the Nigerian Constitution and volumes and volumes of heavy textbooks. I just wanted to go back home, rest and not worry about food.
If you’re a Nigerian student living in the dorms, the mere thought of rice or pasta is enough to send you into a traumatic overdrive. Simply because this is almost always what you eat, day in, day out at school. So, I was pretty much looking forward to two things, rest and good, non-cardboard quality food.
And I had all two. I kind of spelt it out for the family that I was mainly here to rest and they should pretty much treat me like a visitor. And thankfully, they did. For the most part, at least. What I did not expect was how much fun I’d have with my family. My family was the highlight and best part of my holiday. Being around them, hearing all the laughs and jokes cause my family members are nothing if not low-key comedians, and I laughed and laughed till my ribs hurt.
I also went out with my sisters. We’re mostly indoor people. Or maybe this is just me projecting, but we were mostly indoors for a good part of this holiday, minus going to Church and the market. My little sisters kept frowning more and more, dropping not-so-subtle hints that they wanted to go out a bit and do something fun. I didn’t know what to do about that, because at some point, I was a bit low on funds.
So, I took just my sisters out. The parents were chilling at home and we had the best time. It reminded me a lot of when I was growing up and my parents or all the rich relatives would take my elder sister and I out. Now, I was the one doing the big aunty things, taking my sisters out and it was more than a lovely experience. We talked, laughed and bonded over the silliest things, took goofy pictures and videos and the fact that my bank account was drained scarcely even mattered to me. It was worth it. They were worth it.
That particular day, afterwards, we bought things for my parents at home and we had the most splendid laughs while my Dad jokingly grumbled about how much money we were spending and how that could have cooked three big pots of soup comfortably, lol.
Anyway, I’ll be back to school tomorrow, but I’m glad I got to enjoy this with my family. Looking forward to even more memorable holiday moments.
Images are mine.
