Abiodun Alabi: An unusual lesson (30 Days, 30 Voices)

by Abiodun Alabi

Omari

” ‘…just relax and enjoy the moment’, those words resonated in my mind, an unending echo, reflecting off the walls of my mind every day.”

I can’t remember the date, day or time but all I kept with me was the lesson. I kept with me the thrill.

It was summer, I and my family had embarked on our typical pilgrimage away from the hassle of Nigeria. Vacations were important to us because they were the only time of the year when everyone was at home from school and work, reunited. We got to eat together, pray together and sometimes cry together. We couldn’t afford the ‘plush’ holiday destinations yet, this was one of the first trips out of Nigeria and it was to the U.A.E, Dubai to be precise.

My most profound memory of Dubai, however, wasn’t the tall, beautiful edifices looming upon the city’s skyline or the huge malls; it wasn’t the Desert 4×4 tour or Magic planet, which was filled with everything that tantalized the imagination of the kid I was back then, no, these were important memories but not the most valuable ones.

My most valuable memory was a lesson I had learned at the famed water park ‘Wild Wadi’, and its unlikely teacher was my older brother. It’s been at least 10 years or so since this incident, but this memory never left me. I never really could shake it off.

We arrived the water park at noon. It was just like I had imagined- aqua heaven. My dad as always suggested that we split into 3 groups and I went with Tunde, my older brother, because he’s the most daring and most fearless one, he knew how to create his fun and he knew how to get away with whatever consequences it brought. He is wise but a bit unafraid of consequences, especially those that came after great benefits. And me? I was just the little, hesitant, sceptic, willing-to-have-fun-and-tag-along one.

We all agreed to meet up by 5:30 pm at a rendezvous point my Dad chose. We set out for the adventure; water slides, paddle boats, caves, etcetera. It truly felt like Aqua heaven and we were just the privileged little angels entitled to everything, every fun imaginable that the structures of Man and the waters of God could unite to create.

After getting on almost all the rides, we spotted a very long queue. It went round and about a hill, it was like a castle of wooden stairs.

‘’Brother Tunde, what’s that?’’ I said.

‘’I don’t know, but let’s go check it out’’, he enthusiastically replied.

We got on the queue and later realized that we had just enrolled to get on one of the tallest water slides in the world at the time, at least 108 feet tall. This was the kind of thing Tunde liked, this was the kind of thing I didn’t mind but by the time we were halfway up the hill, it was 5:30 already, it was time to get back to the rendezvous point. I became a bit frantic but it didn’t seem to bother Tunde. He was still so relaxed and expectant.

‘’Brother Tunde’’, I said (Yea, he’s 2 years older but I call him ‘brother’ because apparently, while we were growing up, we fought all the time and this was dad’s mechanism and idea for teaching us to respect each other)

‘’I’m afraid. Mum and Dad will kill us. They might have gone and left us here, we are dead.’’

‘’Biodun, relax, even if we get back now, they’d still scream at us. So just relax and enjoy the moment.’’

‘’…just relax and enjoy the moment’’ those words resonated in my mind, an unending echo, reflecting off the walls of my mind every day. That struck me. The purity of childhood innocence and the vigour of childhood curiosity intersected in my mind at that moment. He looked at me and smiled as the mischievous seed he had deposited in my mind began to take root; I grinned back at him but on the inside, I was fascinated by what I had just heard.

We resumed our climbing.

We got to the top of the hill and the water slide was in front of us. The instructors demonstrated the right posture to take while sliding to avoid injuries or falling out the sides of the water slide. Tunde went down first, screaming happily all the way down. I shook my head and smiled.

It was my turn. I laid down, crossed my arms around my chest, said a silent prayer and then in a few moments, I was sliding a 100 feet or more down a slippery slide at high speed with no life insurance and no heir to my estate- which included my school books, a back pack, my lego blocks and a toy laptop.

In about 8 seconds, it was over and it was worth it. The adrenaline didn’t let us settle down, with all our childhood energy, we kept talking about it all the way back to the rendezvous point. At that point, I didn’t seem to care about the consequences any more. I was smiling without a care in the world.

We spotted my mum, dad and younger siblings just sitting and waiting. My dad looked angry, my mum looked indifferent.

‘’Where have you been?’’ Dad lashed out.

‘’Are you both insane? What’s the time? Didn’t I tell you to come back by 5:30 and look at the time, it’s almost 7:30. You children will not kill me.’’

With the fire in his eyes and the Yoruba disciplinarian blood rapidly pumping through his veins, he would have asked for his last energy from God, like Samson, and destroyed our little ‘philistine’ bodies with the whipping; but Thank the God of Abraham that we were in a very visible spot, it was a public place and the screaming was more than enough attention. My mum just gave us the look. She didn’t need to speak further. As we walked to the changing rooms, Tunde turned to me and smiled. I smiled back. Victory was ours today and yet again, the benefits of the action had outweighed the consequence.

Every day we are presented with actions and consequences. Choose one, bear the other. Make the choice and be brave enough to stand in the face of its consequence. So many people are constantly being trapped in the What ifs, The should I s? The ‘’No, she won’t love me back’’, the ‘’I shouldn’t ask because I don’t think I deserve it’’ mentality and the ‘’I shouldn’t start because I’ll never finish’’ mind-set.

Today, I say to you ‘Start’, ‘Ask’, ‘Tell her you love her and let her decide if to love you back, but tell her’. To you, I say ‘You should’, ‘You can’ and ‘You must’.

Thank you Brother Tunde, I will never forget that unusual lesson.

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Abiodun Alabi a.k.a Omari is an artist seeking to create positive art and Hip Hop is his chosen primary medium. Asides being a rapper, he is a writer, designer and music producer. Above all, Omari is a work in progress. He tweets from  @AybeeOmari

30 Days, 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians from across the world to share their stories and experiences – creating a meeting point where our common humanity is explored.

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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