When I write, it is hardly ever planned, maybe that is why it seem so crazy and disorganised sometimes, or maybe crazy and disorganised is just my style, but for this particular piece,I am going to acknowledge everyone who gave me a reason to write. The essence of this piece came from my friend and author of the book ON A LOT OF THINGS, Ifelanwa Osundolire.
He in very many words talked about childhood dreams, and in some cases lack of it. It is a piece I believe a lot of people can easily relate with, because it was a discussion or a thought that we had with our cronies as growing kids. On his inspiring piece What Do You Become When You Don’t Know What You Want To Become , he talked about dreams and aspirations, and how some had no idea what the were going to become in the future. I wanted to be an engineer at some point, and I was pretty good at the sciences, though I had a natural flare for the arts, then somewhere along the line I changed my mind and wanted to become a lawyer! Big jump if you ask me, and that decision was made based on two reasons;
• We had been robbed several times while I was a kid and I wanted to put all the bad guys in jail.
• I had watched the series Matlock, time and time again and he made the legal profession seem like the most interesting job anyone could do.
I even toyed with the idea of being a private detective! All thanks to James Hadley Chase, Ian Fleming and Nick Carter I am, till date a sucker for crime fiction, be they books or movies.
Bottom line is, I had a million and one things I wanted to be, and I ended up studying French! a far cry from any of the above. C’est la vie!As unstable as I sound now, I had a lot of friends who looked up to me, as I always seemed so sure of what I wanted to be at each point, I was never one of those kids who just flowed with the tide and never had a clue what they wanted to be. But the truth is, a lot of them turned out better focused than I am, and are pretty much stable in their chosen fields. I guess sometimes people mature and seem smarter initially, while the late bloomers just shoot up once they find fertile ground and a firm footing.
My colleague and Friend Yinka Lawson (I always like mentioning people’s names, kinda like giving them credit for their contribution) asked a question this morning, as we pondered over the NLC strike “what advice will I give to my children?” it was a question he had given a lot of thought to, and he went further to explain,
you can not tell them being the smartest gets you the best jobs- not always true
you can not tell them its all about luck or favour—they might just become lazy bums.
you can not tell them honesty has its gains-when they see the contrary with all the rich criminals.
you can not tell them to do whatever it takes- that would be sending the wrong message.
we talked at length and I knew what he was talking about, because like I had written in September on the piece NO GREY AREAS, its all seeming so bleak these days, the wicked prosper in their wickedness, corrupt practices triumph and more people are thinking, “if you cant beat them, join them”< and as a Christian I have come to appreciate even more the passage in the bible asking God to;
…shorten the hard times so the very elect will not be deceived.My friend Yimi Bokesh sent me the pictures I will be using in this piece, pictures which took me on a beautiful walk down memory lane.
She reminded me in very few words and very many pictures of those good old days when children read books, when uncles and aunties would give us books as Christmas gifts and it would mean something, those days when we competed on who had a richer library, those days when adverts where drawn not photographed.
and the rest of them we started with as kids. what happened to our lovely Bata
, what happened to Nasco biscuit, what took away bazooka
bubble gum, who stole our childhood memories.Childhood…. fond memories…decisions...Nostalgia
