"Adulthood can be quite a pain and a burden to bear" said one of my friend when we sat together one faithful day on a cool and breezy evening just discussing about the reality of things and how it differs from what we had imagined when we were little. I could understand what he meant when he said those words because I knew the trajectory his life took from when he was little till this point in time, as life gave him a new and different path from what he had envisioned. We sat there for almost 4 hours just discussing about alot of things, as well as just watching people pass by to their respective destinations, minding their own business as the toll of work stress was etched on some of their faces.
The funny thing was he wanted to be a medical doctor while he was little as that was one of the most popular career choice back then and I always wanted to be an engineer, but fate chose differently for him, because he didn't end up studying medicine in Higher Institution but was rather given Physics to study after his third application into the university and he reluctantly took it because he felt he had no time to waste again delaying further.
He later graduated from Higher Institution with a second class upper grade despite the fact that it wasn't his dream course but he relented and studied hard and it yielded that result, but the reality of things in this country of mine which is Nigeria is that the probability of getting employed as a young graduate is very low if you don't have connection somewhere at the top and worst still they most times don't consider the course you read to give you employment, as long as you are recommended by somebody from a powerful position, then it's settled.
We sat down that evening reminiscing about alot of things as children were just playing around carefree, some where playing football and others were just playing with sand around, then suddenly he spoke again saying "look at this kids, they have nothing to worry about aside from eating and sleeping at this stage because their parents provides everything for them", I smiled at what he said and responded "you were also once like them with no worries about anything, but here we are today"
Engrossed in our discussion, we didn't hear when some of kids were shouting for us to dodge because their football was headed our way straight for his face, luckily he was able to dodge in time to avoid the impact from the ball. We called the kids to come over and we warned them to be careful if not we will seize the ball and they all apologises, then one of them who seems like the oldest among them spoke up and said they were shouting for us to dodge but it seems we were not listening at all and my friend answered him and said "it's alright, we were just carried away by adult stuffs, he shouldn't worry about it for now since his still small"
The boy asked another question again and said "uncle, are things that hard when you become an adult", we both laughed at the boys curiosity but still answered him and told him that it's just complicated at times but not everybody faces the same reality. The boys respond shocked us as he said "I don't want to grow up because it feels like a trap, I want to remain like this and continue to enjoy mummy food and play with my friends". We both laughed and assured him that his future might be brighter than he thinks and we gave them their ball and ask them to go and continue playing, which they did.
Thank you for your time