Take a moment

We focus so much on the things we want, that sometimes, we forget to take a break to look around us and be grateful for the things we already have.

_{photo by Léonard Cotte}

The other day, my little brother had texted me on WhatsApp, apparently he had thought about my age (or my dad probably mentioned it to him) and he couldn't believe I was that old. The little man had asked me the "When will you get married?" question and all I could do was laugh because we both knew he didn't mean that, that was just his funny way of calling me an old man (which I'm not).. Lol

When that chat ended, I saw myself having some kind of self reflection about my life and how far I've come, and as I did that, my head started becoming aware of the things I've accomplished in this young life of mine. It's not like I wasn't aware about any of it before, but I've come to realize that many of us never really pay much attention to certain things in our lives until we do.

It's like having a near-death experience and surviving, suddenly it will feel like scales were removed from your eyes and you could now see clearly. You would suddenly find yourself appreciating every little thing about life, not because you didn't care before, but because now you understand the importance of everything you do because some few days ago, you probably couldn't even lift you finger. That near-death experience has shown you how important some of this "little things" are. So it exactly was something like that for me, only in this case, I didn't need help from a near-death experience to appreciate the things around me, I had the realization all by myself with maybe a little help from my kid bro.

You see, myself and a friend would always do this thing where whenever things were beginning to get tough for us, we would remind ourselves of how it used to be during our first year in school, when we went to bed on empty stomach just so that we could afford textbooks or whatever it was these lecturers were scamming us of. This wasn't us living in the past but instead we motivating ourselves with past experiences to make sure we dont give up and also to remind ourselves that no matter what it is, there will always be better days ahead of us... And trust me when I say it helps a lot.

So yeah, although it hasn't been an easy journey getting here, what matters to me is that I have gotten here and it's nothing but up from here onwards, we just have to learn to sometimes take a break, and have fun. Take a little bit of that money in your savings, and go have a good time. The world will still be here when you get back, and you can go back to busting your ass off again.