Today while at the shop, I saw two of my childhood friends. They were both surprised to see me, just as I was surprised to see them too. But for different reasons.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been out of the neighbourhood, but now that I’m back I’ve been able to meet a few people I spent my teenage days with.
But things are not the same anymore.
That’s normal though, they were surprised to see that I'm back home since last year and only just seeing me this year.
But what surprised me was different.
The reason is that the shop beside my stepmom's shop is owned by a barber who also has some other business he’s into on a low-key.
This young fella around my age is into selling all kinds of drugs to people, but exclusively those he knows very well, and his customers are mostly people from the neighborhood.
I’m not a saint, because I was once into all that sh&t too. Just that it wasn’t for the same reason as others who get into drugs for fun.
I hear you say, whatever, we all sure do have our reasons for getting high. I agree with you because it all boils down to one thing no matter the reason we might have for going down that path…
Which is primarily us attempting to get away and escape our imperfect reality.
And whenever you hit the high road, the road always looks perfect without any traffic jams or opposition to tell you you're driving yourself nuts on the road which leads to despair.
It’s now more common than ever among young adults to feel hopeless at a young age.
A part of me can’t blame them that much because you know this world is hard enough already, so getting high to balance your bad mood and life situations isn’t such a bad thing.
Regardless, who is to blame for our despair?
Nowadays we like to do one thing which is another form of despair and giving up indirectly.
Today almost 90% of people especially young adults think the governments are to blame for not providing adequate support and protection for them to survive and thrive.
This isn't only a young people's thing alone.
I also see older folks come around to get a fix like the youngins.
When you approach them, you can hear, see, and feel their pain from how they like to talk about how they have been praying for a better country and better days since they were young.
But eventually had to give up because they realized that there was nothing that would ever change in this country. After all, we are all ruled by crooks and cronies who only come to you when it’s election period.
The story goes on and on and on…
And the tales are being told from one generation to the other.
My humble self had even indulged in such badmouthing the powerful before. But what has that done for me? Nothing.
Trash talking, same with peddling drugs, has never solved anyone's problem nor added a cent to their bank account. Drugs can even drain you dry of that little dent you’ve got and worked for in hard work.
Anything in life that doesn’t do people good seems to be the things we like to indulge in most nowadays because it feels good at the moment, and it’s always relatable by others, so we like the validations that the governments and elites are the root of our problems.
But if we are being honest with ourselves, some of those people were also dealt with the same card we were but eventually had to work their asses off, which later paid off.
I don’t see myself a better person, but I’m glad I don’t have people, governments, or even elites I’ve never seen before to be the root of my problem when I know all I’ve got to do is to work and keep working harder and smarter until I can also be able to stand tall on my feet. If you don’t stand tall and strong for yourself today it is easy to go the route that others take to despair. However the case I believe that humans are wired to fall and stand again but many don't want to stand so they fall and stay drowsy on drugs.
Whichever path we want to take it is best to know which leads to despair and which doesn't!
Image was created using canva
