By: Ubelejit Dandison
Life appears in different colours to different people.
While it may appear as gentle green to some people.
It would appear as a sparkling red to others.
We had little green moments, a lot of red and sometimes yellow.
Green came with abundance.
Yellow with not so much wealth nor lack.
And red? Was total lack.
Maybe life gave us yellow but the times it showed red, it felt like forever.
In fact Yellow is red at some points.
While others could go to private universities, we swam with Asuu strike in federal universities.
While our friends in private universities would talk of a vacation in Dubai, we couldn’t even cross the border to Cameroon.
So we believed in the future and held firm to the pictures in our head.
The picture that someday we will walk down the streets of U.S or just another foreign country.
While others could talk of having a million naira in their account at once, we knew our money came in bits and problems would take them all before we could do a savings of a million.
In this lack, we heard tales that senators were being paid 36 million naira as a monthly salary.
While graduates strolled the streets miserably with brown envelops and oh because of civilization, some will bury themselves in front of their phones, laptops and at internet cafes applying for jobs. Jobs that 5000 others have applied for.
In this case, the escape route was looking outside Nigeria.
Seeking Masters study as an escape route from our poor country.
Maybe we would be able to stay back after studies and become Nigerians in diaspora.
That name “Nigerians in Diaspora” seemed fair enough than Hungry graduate in Nigeria.
Not minding the fact that Nigerians in Diaspora could have the reality of Hungry and suffering Nigerians in Diaspora.
In all of these, hope lingers in the hearts of many.
Hope that someday we will all be fine.
Well not all of us, because depression may have sent some to their early graves.
Suicide will become a lovely glass of wine for some people who’s hope elasticity had elapsed.
We wait for the green days and while we wait, we keep working.
Our spiritual fathers will ask us to pray for grace. So we pray for grace.
Maybe holding firm to those pictures of greener days was the fuel that fired our desire to be better.
Cause few years down the line. We will become that great image.
Ubelejit Dandison is a Professional story teller and content strategist with years of experience building engaging content across various media platforms, she can be reached via [email protected].
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