YOU AND LIFE'S MAP

What street are you on?

Sarah stood at the center of her room, confused, angry, and frustrated. Where does she start? It's been six months since she lost her job and nothing new seems to be happening. she has been told to vacate her apartment in the next three months. Right now, she expect nothing short of a miracle to happen.

Ike, on the other hand, is a confirmed hustler, trading this and buying that. Whatever legally puts food on the table is a good career path. With his sick mother and nine siblings to carter for, doing the oddest of odds is something he had to kill every sense of pride for.

Unlike Sarah and Ike, Aminu seems to have this life thing all figured out. The country no longer seems like it is heading anywhere. The best thing to do now, is to JAPA (travel out of the country) until things realign, that is, if they ever will.

Aminu can afford a JAPA package but Titi can barely afford to fend for herself. Talk more about getting enough money to afford a passport. Even if she could raise the money, she could wait almost 6 months to capture, so what is the point?

And when you think life's drama was ended, Kotila and Grace have two different dreams on how their lives should pan out. With two children and another on the way, Kotila thinks his wife is better off abroad with the kids. Grace concludes she will not be so foolish as to leave her husband for all these young girls to take over.

Even with Kotila and Grace's daily squabbles, Affiong is on her knees day and night praying for a husband as Ifeanyi's family keeps reminding him that he is not getting any younger and he needs to settle down.

The scenarios above show examples of the various struggles of an everyday man. Though some are at the point where they currently are by their own doing, others are being navigated through their roads with a map life handed them. OUR FOCUS TODAY IS ON THOSE WHO LIFE HAPPENED TO.

We are all headed in the direction called DESTINY, and all of us though taking different routes, desire to get there in due time. Yet we forget that life has a lot of tricks up its sleeves.

In 2012 you were sure you were on the right track to Destiny. Then life showed UP with tricks, first, throwing you off balance then rerouting you to a street you never thought YOU would ever drive through or even knew it existed. Somehow the Street that was suppose to be a drive through is slowly beginning to look like your all-time favourite location. Everytime your friends or family are looking for you on the map, your current location constantly reads "Jide on sorrow road."

Some people have even fallen off the grid. They have wandered far and deep into the unknown, thinking they could play a fast one on life and find a shortcut now they cannot even find their way back. The right time to ask the golden question is now, WHERE ARE YOU mentally, emotionally, physically, financially and otherwise?

Are you at the place where you promised your childhood friends you were going to be when you turned 30? Do you currently own all the things you have dreamed of? Have you stopped dreaming and working towards achieving? You loved to set goals. Are you still setting goals, or have you stopped just because all the ones you set did not turn out the way you planned? Again I ask, where are you? Are you still flipping through the pages of the past? Creating mental images of what could have been thereby delaying what should be because you cannot let the pain go, Amaka really! No, it is not your village people. It is you. You are your village people. You cannot keep praying for Ezinne to die because she took Ejike away. Instead of her dying, you are dying, especially when Ezinne keeps progressing and you are still on the road of "die by thunder and lightning."

No, I am not joking about your pain. I have had my fair share of life's shenanigans, but I took a stand, and I think you should too. I changed the steps of my dance to the rhythm of life. I let go of the baggage called anger and forgave. I let go of my side hustle called regret and pressed on. I made sure to give my best in all I do. If it does not turn out right, I know it is not on me, and I took the voice of my nagging perfection spirit and gave it to excellence. She is a lot calmer.

I hated where I was, but I did something about it. I hope you do the same.

Till I come your way again, stay true, stay you.