Oluwakemi Omowaire: Hey, don’t listen to Kcee, do not pull over!

by Oluwakemi Omowaire

kcee1

Yes we can slow down to catch some breath, but please do not pull over.

‘Heee…. don’t reverse, baby don’t pull over, ooo baby don’t pull over.’ Hahaha!

Wow! How time flies. The other day I couldn’t stop watching my 15 year old cousin as she tweaked her waist to Davido’s track – ‘Aye’. I remember tying her on my back as a baby with ankara wrappers 14 years back, cleaning her poop and changing her nappy. Today she’s grown into this young beautiful woman, with round hips and breasts, like a well-watered houseplant. Already deciding on a course to study in the university. She now can assert herself, tell people what’s on her mind, what she likes and what she doesn’t like. She had me smiling and wrapped with joy for her. It all seemed like yesterday.

In-between life’s many dramas; life won’t wait for no man. Her elder sister, my other cousin who was in jss1 when I was in my year 1 in the university, she too has started talking about marriage. She now has a fiancé. A fiancé ooo! Chai…  these children have grown up o. Lol! But haven’t we all?

Hmmm, forgive my gesturing instead of pointing jare, all my dry lines, my indirect references, it’s all about Time. Life. And time. And TIME again.

I still think of life. I’m still very curious as well.

Every day comes with its own uniqueness. Some sunny, some rainy. Buses pass by, cars, traffic sloshing through each day, people coming, going, running, talking, Muslims praying, Christians fasting, children crying, giggling. We humans peer through the crack in life’s curtain by the seconds.

‘Don’t just wait for life to happen to you, you arise and happen to life.’ Someone once told me.

If we look back, there may have been times, years that have appeared wasted. Wasted studying the wrong course, looking for a job, or waiting idly for something good to happen. Yes, life might not always be downright buoyant, but still, constantly seeing the future as loomed and as an endless, joyless tedium won’t do us any good either.

I’ve once come to that junction before, that point where I hope for one reason or the other that I might become somebody else. Wishing I might walk right out of my own life and become somebody who is not me. Lol! Silly right? Years of now trusting in my own abilities, of not ‘pulling over’, hehehe… has brought me so much results with happiness. In my usual light-hearted mood today (a mood I learned), the good news is that we could constantly concentrate on the changes we want to make in our lives. And actually make them happen.

Yes we can slow down to catch some breath, but please do not pull over.

I’m a learner. I enjoy learning and of course I enjoy basking in my new found knowledge and blossoming in its warmth. What is life about then, if we stopped learning? Anyone who has stopped learning might as well be dead. For there’s always something better to look forward to.

I have fond memories of my secondary school days. Yes. I still do remember moments in those years with crystal clarity. Okay, maybe not with crystal clarity sha but I still do have some sweet memories. Not only memories of the love letters with the heart shape and the cupid arrow. Other memories of my classmates and me, our dreams, our aspirations and high hopes to take on the world in the future that looked so distant. Yes that future is here now, and the future is still tomorrow and the day after the day after tomorrow. Over the years gone by, some like me, who dreamed to become doctors are now zoologist, biochemists, graduates of biology, some now work in banks or places I do not know about. Some have edged past us, and some we’ve edged past.  Some actually became doctors but have still haven’t found no fulfilment, still looking for ways to save the world and themselves. But the years have passed, some are no longer here and some of us are still here, still trying to crack life’s many puzzles.

But in all, life isn’t a competition. It’s about fulfilment. For those who see life as a competition, sorry if my beliefs just doesn’t correspond with yours. I think if you see life as a competition, you will still always find something missing. You’ll always be burdened with feelings of unhappiness.  You’ll constantly have to attend to forays of your unpeaceful mind, the chase will exhaust you. So where’s the fun?

Well, today, I just want to live my own life. Order my own thoughts neatly, dream my own dreams, and pursue it at a good and convenient pace.

And hey, no hard feelings towards those who love the easy life. Who am I to judge them? Maybe there’s just nothing they want bad enough to risk anything for, or inconvenience themselves for. Everyone with his own.

For me, moving forward is a necessity.

My dreams and I, we won’t pull over. Our drive won’t let us. It’s an ability we both have by virtue of being together. A decision to stick together. To move on. No giving up. For the living have to keep moving until death kisses the eyelids and the heart stops to beat.

And until then, let’s have fun, learn, grow, pursue, pray, laugh, cry, love, but do not pull over. Take a step further. Cross one more line. And one more. Cheers!

 

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Oluwakemi Omowaire is a psychologist, a writer and a creative artist. She has a published novel on rape titled ‘Dead Roses and she is working on her second book When Every Thing Good Comes. He tweets from @oluwakemifully

 

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

 

 

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