I will like to start this post by apologizing with the amount of picture am using, am using way limited amount of pictures to express how I feel. I’m really sorry, because if you have been reading my previous post, I said I have been camera shy, I rarely take pictures. But all of that will change soon, as I will be leaving my comfort zone to take more pictures.
Every Nigerian knows this that after you are done with university, you have to serve the country for one year. This program is called the NYSC. The full meaning is National Youth Service Corp. It’s a mandatory act that must be done by every Nigerian citizen. Before I went to the university or even graduated university I always thought that serving the country was something I would never do. This is because I felt the experience was going to be a bad or hard one.
The NYSC program goes this way, after you have graduated from the university, you apply for the NYSC program. After applying, you will be sent a redeployment letter with the location where you have to spend a compulsory 3 weeks in a camp. The camp is supposed to be a military camp but a subtle one.
I was very lucky to had been redeployed to Lagos. I stay in Lagos so it was easy for me to go to the camp. Others were redeployed to various parts of the states in Nigeria. I hate travelling so travelling was my biggest barrier, I didn’t want to travel. The universe was working in my favor and I got redeployed to Lagos. Before going to the camp I was sort of a lost individual at that time, was going through an emotional hard time in my life at that time. I needed every distraction I could get, something to get me away from my house to a new environment where I can forget my problems, even if it was for just for three weeks.
I got to camp with no expectations, this is because I have come to the realization that expectation is sometimes the birth of disappointment. When I got to camp, we were told where to register and showed our rooms. The camp was filled with a lot of youths, it felt so good to see people within your age bracket because in my house I don’t see that. My neighbors were either way older than me or way younger. It was in camp I met 
Within that three weeks camping I decided to participate in most of the activities and socialized with a lot of people. I felt really free in camp. There was always activities in the camp and these activities kept distracting me from my problems I had before coming to the camp. There was never a dull moment. Everyone in camp were nice, imagine being around people after subjecting yourself indoors for months. I was really happy, having conversation with people, excited to hear people’s experience and where they came from. Glad to have made lots of friends that were also clueless towards the next chapter of their lives, it made me feel that am not alone, trying to figure my life out.
There was a Man O War activity that involved doing some subtle military activity like climbing some ropes, jumping from a high place, crawling under some traps. We also had the marching parade, I was extremely terrible at marching. My favorite place in the camp was the market. There was a market in the camp called ”Mami Market”. The food from this market was one of the best. They were some older women who knew how to prepare this special noodles that after two years I left camp, I still day dream about their noodles. I was always looking forward to eating my dinner at their place. We had a shawarma stand, where you could go buy shawarma, we had smoothie and Cold Stone Ice-cream stand. Trust me I was extremely delighted eating all these. We also had pizza stands. You could go buy pizza, ice cream and smoothie. Lots of people found love in camp, I tried but all the love spot were taken I guess.
You thought I was done?
Nah, the cherry on the top was the final night before leaving the camp. A show was organized for us, I think it was sponsored by the state government. Haven’t been to a live concert before in my life, but in those three weeks I had the feeling of what a live concert felt like. A stage was set, and celebrities were invited to come perform for us for free. I was so happy seeing celebrities I see on TV perform live in front of my very own eyes. These are not experiences I get staying at home.
Once again I will like to apologize for not providing pictures showing these experiences, but trust me they were great and magical. I left home lost and sad, but I came back after three weeks feeling good, happy, motivated and optimistic about life. I was really glad I spent those three weeks there. Sometimes when am bored, I try to reminisce on those experiences again. The happiness I felt there was really genuine.
Oh!!! I forgot were given free money in the camp also. We were given a stipend to spend in camp, which was really cool because I wasn’t expecting. I went to Mami and spent it all on food. I ate and bought things without checking the price because I was on spending mode, mainly because the money was free money. I also learnt Karate, we had a Karate 🥋 teacher in camp.
When the three weeks was over, in as much as I enjoyed myself and wished I could stay back, I still wanted to go home because that’s where am used to. It was really a good experience and am grateful I experienced that when I got the opportunity.
