Damilola Ajilore: Living each moment (30 Days, 30 Voices)

If you grew up like me, you are probably grateful to have come from a household with parents that were protective enough to shield you from BIG issues while those childhood days lingered.

Based on my hypothetically guesstimated statistics, I’m almost certain that 75% of the world population live life on a routine.  Once things “get real”, as we like to say, we shove dreams aside and place survival as utmost priority. At this point, we begin to laugh less, work longer hours, spend less time with family and friends and get the hu$tle on in full gear.

For many of us, somewhere between the ages of 23 and 29, life begins to revolve around money and childhood fantasies like “when I grow up I want to become an actor” disappear.  We realize that “man must chop” . The reality of the fact that if acting isn’t in Hollywood, it might be best to secure a more ‘practical’ job kicks in. We then settle for more financially stable professions in Medicine, Law, Business or something along those lines.

Even our relationships become less love-centered, requiring intense strategy; how much does he make? What does she do for a living? Our state of mind becomes “Me, I cannot come and suffer o” or  “I don’t want a babe that will slow my Hustle o”

Having fun becomes secondary, laughter becomes more expensive, and smiles require bribes.

Sometimes, I find my mind drifting back to my early school days, where my major priorities were having a nice school bag, maintaining my little friendship hub and then ummm yeah… attempting superior grades that would protect me from being asked the popular question from the parent handbook; “The person that came first, did he have two heads”.  

Now compare those “heavy-loaded” priorities to the adult “rush-hour survival lifestyle”

The good ol’ days with good ol’ problems like trying to study for common entrance with no NEPA, interrupted by the screaming and dancing of the entire estate “ABACHA don die o”, or the being stuck in traffic, sweaty and determined to get my mum to buy me fanyogo from a hawker. Despite these imperfect perfections, my childhood memories trigger up a bunch of happy emotions. Those good ol’ days.

If you grew up like me, you are probably grateful to have come from a household with parents that were protective enough to shield you from BIG issues while those childhood days lingered.

We were indeed shielded from the reality of the hustle.

Growing up means getting exposed to the reality of that hustle and success is determined by how one comes to terms with these realities.

Maintaining ourselves and staying in touch with our happy childhood emotions becomes a task and life becomes meeting deadlines, not meeting deadlines, achieving Goals, hitting major roadblocks, then more deadlines, more goals, undue pressures, then break-ups, a few unexpected bills, upsetting doctors reports… and the list could go on.

My point is somewhere in the middle of all this, it is important that we take moments to really live and make conscious efforts to put a positive spin on some of our situations. While we steer our way into the future, we should cling on to the joys of the past while staying excited about the hopes for greater joys tomorrow and maybe, just maybe, our realities may be easier to handle.

They say great people are made, not born. I’d say the same thing about happy people.

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Damilola Ajilore is currently in graduate school for a Masters in Strategic Marketing, after spending a couple of years in the Financial Services Industry.  Her passions lie mainly in working with people and media.  This passion is revealed through her website; www.dudunorth.com and her radio show; Dudulive on gidilounge.fm.  Don’t forget to tune into her show or like her page, I’m sure she would be happy to meet you.

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30 Days 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians to share their stories and experiences with other young Nigerians, within our borders and beyond, to inspire and motivate them.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Comments (4)

  1. How true! we have to choose to be happy every day. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

    Thanks for sharing.

  2. That's my girl! You remember it all like it was just yesterday! What a way with words.Love ya mucho.

  3. Nice Article….The Article Speaks D Mind of Millions.

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