‘In my next life, ...’, you must have heard this phrase being used when some unique issues are being thrashed out. It is usually followed by an opinion of what they would have done better or not, who or what they could have chosen at that point in life and so on. One true fact is that no one, absolutely no one, was given the liberty to school certain things before he was born. We could not choose who we wanted our parents to be, nationality, gender, skin colour and what have you. It all boils down to, apart from the science of procreation and genetics, to location of birth and what/how the universe directed our course.
For this purpose of this course, if I were to imagine a scenario where had the freedom to choose, or change, those things I could not have at first I bet a lot of things would go down! Let's see..
First, starting from the foremost element of society - the family, I do not think I will change who my parents and siblings are. Growing up and through my decades of living, I have been moulded into what I am today basically through the training my parents have instilled in me. Perhaps, that training was a result of the condition of living financially, so to say, while they were growing or when the union started. But the main thing is that what was inculcated in me and I am still building on cuts across many areas of life and it has always taught me how to improve on it. Besides, my parents were my first set of academic tutors, always making sure I did not miss little details like a minus in my arithmetics. I am very grateful to and for them. My siblings are a bunch of people I won’t trade for anything. They have really been a source of checks and balances to my actions apart from my parents. My younger sister is indirectly helping to understand what it takes to assume some role of responsibility and accountability.
My gender will and must remain as a man, I can’t begin to say how much I love being a man. I know the level of responsibility and expectation increases over time, but I love it still.
Nigeria as a nation is one blessed with lots of resources. I know it may sound sarcastic but it is true. I still marvel at the way some people propagate the gospel of the overseas as though they were there and detrimentally bashing their country. Truth be told, there have been and are still lapses in the structures running the affairs. But all that is there overseas is not all glitter and gold. It is a fact that there are some things that we could still do here and take advantage of here than there. Lately, through certain online research I have been doing and the advice from experienced people, I can boldly say that there are truckloads of opportunities that go out daily and still go untapped in this very country. I mentioned some of them in ENLIGHTENMENT: Being A Student Would I still choose Nigeria as my place of birth? What do you think?
Majorly, I will make a bunch of corrections instead of eradicating the following. One of them is being vocal. I was always an inquisitive boy but I do hold back from sharing my views. In fact, I would need something so badly that I would just succumb to fate or the universe to come to my aid. However, I freely spoke at home but the issue was outside. Now, I’m good and okay to share my thing as I please but I should have learned how to do that much earlier in life.
