Early Freedom

Sometimes, when we ask for certain things from people older than us who obviously know better than us, and they refuse to give us those things, we end up thinking they hate us or are just refusing to give them to us because they don't want to, not knowing that they probably said no for our best interest.

Back in the day, I always hated the fact that my parents never gave me and my siblings the freedom other kids had at the time. We were always required to be home on time and were barely allowed to attend any parties or events. There were times it felt like we were in prison, and maybe my parents did do too much, but after what I experienced today, I'm not sure that I still feel that way.

_{photo by Pablo Heimplatz}

About two hours ago, someone knocked on my door to call my attention to a lady who has been sitting somewhere upstairs since earlier today. I had seen her earlier but assumed she was visiting someone, so I decided not to approach her or ask her why she was seated there, in order not to make someone's guest feel embarrassed.

Well, it turned out she had an issue with her roommate that ended up getting the police involved, and the landlord of the hostel they both were living in had kicked them out. So she had visited a friend at my hostel who also had kicked her out because he didn't want anything to do with someone who had earlier been arrested that day.

When I approached her and questioned her about her situation, she told me that she had neither any friends nor relatives in the state. Apparently she had come all the way from Lagos on her own. She has the freedom I've always wanted to have, but seeing what that has done to her, leaving her homeless and stranded, sent shivers down my spine because that easily could have been me all those years ago if my parents weren't so protective and I had left home at an early age.

We were able to secure a place for her to stay the night, but she has to leave first thing tomorrow morning, and sadly the poor girl has nowhere to go. It's a sad situation but also a dangerous one because gone are the days when you could house a total stranger because there are a lot of weird people out there nowadays.