Tèmítọ́pẹ́ Ọ̀jẹ́délé-Adéjùmọ̀

I woke up to the deep, so deep, almost indescribable inspiration from Ed Sheeran’s Eraser and my love for the dude keeps skyrocketing. How do one write something so deep? Well, the same question I ask myself when I read some of my works and I wonder how on earth I was able to put them down; it’s just one of the mysteries of writing…

I was born inside a small town, I lost that state of mind/Learned to sing inside the Lord’s House but stopped at the age of nine… 

For so many of us, we did got some opportunities and privileges when we were young, most times as provided by our parents, but what did our naive self care? We just wanted to plunge out on our own and live our fantasies. We hated church/mosque (or whatever religion our parents felt would teach us morals), we hated school, we hated the fact that our parents always restricted us from going to some places or playing with some sets of people. We hated the fact that we were always been given rules, we just wanted to be free. We watched our older siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts watch erotic movies and sultry musical videos, chastising us if we wanted to peep and see what they were watching; we kept wondering why couldn’t we do things as we wanted, and most times we rebelled, even though it got us beaten.

At a point we got tired of rebelling, we decided to do what our parents asked us to do; go to school, learn a trade. Mehn, school wasn’t that fun, and learning a trade? You got to run all the errands in the world, you could as well have washed your oga madam’s panties. We made some mistakes, some with long term consequences, some we were lucky, weren’t so brutal. Some weren’t even our mistakes, they were our parents’, our guardians’, our siblings’, our families’, the governments’, the institutions’,  but we were the ones who bore the consequences. But alas! we survived…

I forget when I get awards the wave I had to ride…

And then when we survived, we started living the dream, we started contributing positively to ourselves, our families, our friends, our community, our world, we were the winners, the victor in battles; how worthy of celebration! With the contributions come the rewards, they come so easily, so easily the challenges of our growing days become funny memories; we make jokes of them over plates of pepper soup and beer, clicking flutes of champagne and deafening music; we are living the life, the prior miseries no longer matter; blame it on the pain that blessed (us) with the life…

But then friends and family (are) filled with envy when they should be filled with pride… As in, how is that? Big Aunts and Uncles feel you shouldn’t be the one outshining their children; even when their children didn’t tread  on the paving stones (you) played upon that kept (you) on the ground… Your siblings feel you are beginning to feel pompous, like why should you always try to do things differently? Extended families feel they own you, your money and your achievements; you should be able to answer them at their every becks and calls, and when you don’t? They will say it’s not your fault, posterity will do something something… Then your enemies begin to add up, almost crushing the dream…

Now here is the point you have to find the locked doors and find another key for its use…and please let them see when you do.

The truth is you cannot satisfy everyone no matter how you try; you cannot live out all the defined lifestyles suggested to you by societal pressures. The irony is if you try to do this, you become an object of mockery and still, people will still talk. Do not live your life based on people’s judgments. If you have more money than most people in your family, try stretch a helping hand to them but not at your own detriment, do not stretch the hands too much that you get dragged back to the dregs.

Make mistakes if you have to, do not be afraid to make mistakes because people will laugh. Make the mistakes, let them laugh, while you get more experienced and more productive. If the world comes against you, do not dim your light, it is the time you should come alive and attain purpose, and to do that you do not need too many crowds; just well driven people of like minds.

The world may be filled with hate, but keep erasing it somehow…find comfort in your pain eraser...inspire the next generation; inspiration’s allowed….