Lessons from my Teenage Years

...Omonoba...


Our people say:
Yoruba: A fi ọ́ jọba ò ńṣàwúre o fẹ́ jẹ Ọlọ́run ni?
English: You have been crowned a king and yet you make good luck charms. Will you be crowned God? - Yoruba proverb.
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I just left my teenage years and I can't even believe they're gone.The only not fun thing about graduating college at 20 is that people in church think it is okay to ask my mum for aso-ebi details. Smh.

20 Things I Learned as a Teenager:

1. Your parents are on your side of the fence. You'll see.

2. Judging people by their secondary school characters is unfair to you and to them (secondary school is a stage and many people aren't playing real life characters). It'll mess with your head to see how each person's life turns out.

P.S: High school never (really) ends.

3. Facebook is a place for people to make you believe how much they are enjoying their lives and how much you are missing out. Twitter is a place for people to bark louder than they can ever bite. Yahoo comments are come-backs for people who were told that they will never be clever. Good job!

4. Nigerians are probably at the height of (neo) colonialism. We haven't even started climbing out of the pit. Nigerians wait for the world's approval before we appreciate our own stuff:

5. Movies are wannabe books. They try so hard.

6. Parents did not tell us that one day, we'd have to let go of our siblings and move away from one another. They did not tell us that we may find our individualities outside of our upbringing and become separate people.

7. Surely, the art of intentionally going out to get smashed and do reckless things, puking, getting hungover and waking up just to do it all over cannot be that glamorous.

8. You will love who you will love. But, it is safer to grow into this love than to fall into it. Your head and your heart are not rivals or mutually exclusive entities; let them work together.

9. Parents actually do relax. Don't forget to tell your younger siblings how strictly you were brought up so that they know how easy they have it.

10. Laughter brought me through.

11. Switch off your phone from time to time and turn off access to the online world. If you're not alone, actually spend time with an offline being. If you're alone, talk to and make music with yourself. So that when you're actually stuck with yourself, you won't go crazy.

12. If you cannot say it to the person, don't say it about the person, behind the person. Everything that should be said should be truth but not everything that is truth must be said. Remember, truth that is malicious or isn't building someone is worthless truth.

13. It is a bitter truth: 20 good friends cannot play together for 20 good years. But, some of your best friends will be from your childhood.

14. Don't go to only the United States and the United Kingdom on holidays. Try Gambia, the Seychelles, Panama and India. Visit Ghana, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Japan.You're a victim of incomplete, stereotypical, power-shaped representations of other countries and people too.

15. Spend a good amount of time with children. They notice things that we're too foolish to notice and they remind us of what life really is about. If a child asks for a walk to the lake or a kiss on the cheek, give it to them.

16. Blind people don't have better hearing or touch. That's all they have so they rely on it more that's why their senses seem sharpened. A blind friend told me this.

17. Appreciate nakedness and nudity. This is art in its purest form. And it is not the same thing as pornography. Your body is a temple.

18. Never write down anything you wouldn't want anyone else to see while you're dead or alive.

19. Engage in discussions with people who think very differently from you. In fact, look for such conversations. These are the best conversations.

20. Don't be attached to words; they're words. Ten years ago, sick, wicked, ill, wrong, bad, nuts, crazy, etc meant the opposites of what they mean today.

I thought to put together a list version of Ryan O'Connell's 25 Things I Learned in My 20s.

NakedSha.