GET OUT AND GO SEE THE WORLD !

This thing called life is a pretty interesting thing, you know. Full of contrasts everywhere you turn; joy and sadness, laughter and tears, sweet and sour, crooked and smooth, easy and difficult, beautiful and ugly, tall and short, fat and slim…and so on, and so on. Life is also full of risks and here, I’m not going to dwell on the sad stuff. Nah, I am going to dwell on the beautiful risks. It is a known fact that one who doesn’t take risks stays the way he is. This brings to my mind this African proverb I heard on the BBC’s Network Africa a long time ago. It says: “if you always go where you’ve gone, you’ll always remain where you’ve been”, which is very true, you know. There are people in this world who were born in a particular place, say like Abraka (that’s in Delta state, in case you didn’t know that. You’re welcome). Okay, so a person is born in Abraka, attends nursery, primary and secondary schools in Abraka. Then they decide to attend university and guess what, it’s in Abraka too. They leave school, get a job, get married and continue to live their life…in Abraka! Well, I guess there must be a rational explanation for that somewhere. And just so you don’t get me wrong, I’m talking about reasons other than financial ones. Some people have NEVER left the safety net (rolls eyes) of the neigbourhood in which they were born and raised, and I think it is sad.

I’m not saying someone must literally move from Ekiti to Las Vegas but ‘wetin’? God created this wonderful, vast world and I don’t think he intends for us to live in just one place all our lives. The world is full of beautiful places to visit, wonderful people to meet, exotic cultures to learn about, strange foods and drinks to taste…I could go on and on. But I think some people are just scared of going somewhere new for different reasons. People are very safe in familiar environments and they may feel vulnerable in new places but as we say in Nigeria, “who nor go, nor know”. It is only by taking that bold step and facing uncharted waters that we can truly experience life. I mean, if we continued to do things the way we know they are done and continued to just be in one place without travelling, life would be very boring. So let us not just stick to doing things the only way we know they are done. There may be a better way of doing a particular thing that you might actually love if only you would take that risk and TRY it. Go to places you have only read about or seen on TV; or a place you might not even have heard about. Don’t be so boxed up, cooped up in your little, safe niche. Life is meant to be lived, I believe…and not just in one place, seeing the same known faces and eating the same known foods.  One can’t even begin to imagine the depth of the beauty of the diversity of this wonderful world we live in, and it is a testament to the awesomeness and mystique of the Master Designer. So go on… live life, travel and see the beauty in it.