WHEN LIFE SLOWS DOWN

Ever feel like your life is at a standstill? Like every single thing isn't just working out? Like everywhere you turn there's an astounding "no" waiting for you? Well you and the rest 7.7 billion of us are on this boat, at different times at least.

For some people that are privileged to go to primary school, getting into secondary school may be the point where their life slows down. Maybe their family is unable to afford to put them through secondary school or maybe they aren't able to pass the exams needed to enter secondary school.

For others (or even for the same people in the previous category), they scaled that hurdle, they got to secondary school and gracefully passed all the exams that took them to SS3 (or there were some setbacks on the way but eventually they got to SS3), then comes JAMB and WAEC. JAMB, of course, jams some, WAEC does it's own thing and if by some miracle, they eventually scale those hurdles, Post UME comes to hold some back. This could take 1, 2, no 5/7 years to finally overcome.

Let's say by some miracle they successfully scaled the previous categories (after however long it takes), you get to University and eventually finish your 4/5/6/7-year courses and graduate. Then NYSC. Again you miraculously cross this hurdle, then comes the job search. The dreadful hassle called the labor market. No man's land, where some think connection is the key, others think education is the key, others think the door doesn't have a keyhole and others think there's no door to even begin with!

Again, you finally get a job, then comes job advancement; getting promotions. Or finally getting married, settling down. Getting a spouse, a few kids, owning a house, cars and other things to make your life comfortable.

At one or more than one of these stages, there's this pause. This deafening silence that makes all the effort you put in to seem like nothing. This hiccup that all the internet cures don't ever solve. This moment that feels like you took a deep breath but somehow you've forgotten to exhale and even though it's burning your chest and you're trying your best to remind yourself to breathe out, you just can't do it!

That, my friend, is what I like to call life telling you to "SLOW DOWN". In some societies, some people take gap years in between one stage of life/education and the other to travel, figure out themselves or just relax. But that's not the case for most of us. The rest of us would just want to finish one stage and immediately move to the next and the next and the next after that. Never slowing down, never catching our breath, never stopping to think, never taking a beat. 

While I think it is great to keep moving forward, I also believe life understands the need to pause, so when we don't voluntarily want to pause, life forces us to slow down. I also know that when life forces us to slow down, it does so in ways that seem like the worst thing that could ever happen to us. Like us having to wait an extra year or 5 to enter university or having to spend an extra year or 2 to finish a course at university or having to wait for a year or 2 looking for a good job after you finish school. This really sucks! I know!

But if it's not too much to ask, I'd like you to look on the bright side with me even if it's just for the few minutes you have to read this post.

3600 × 2400

I know it's hard especially when you see your friends or peers going about their lives, moving to the next stage while it seems like you're lagging behind. I know it's hard when your family and other people start asking you demeaning questions that make you feel like you are not trying at all. I know! But sometimes, it really isn't your fault.  While you may feel like you're alone, YOU ARE NOT. A lot of people are right where you are or have been there before; you are alone. 



Sometimes, that break is part of your journey.  Sometimes, that break is preparing you for what comes next. Sometimes, life is making you slow down in preparation for TAKEOFF.

So, instead of worrying and spending all the time feeling blue, why not look on the bright side and trust that there's a bigger picture that you're not seeing yet that when it eventually becomes clear, everything would make sense? Why not take a break while you wait, plan and prepare for what comes next? Why not take this extra time to rest? Get some more sleep? Read some books? Watch some movies? Let yourself be complacent? Experience nature? Take some walks? Reconnect with old friends? Laugh? Smile? Cry? LIVE!

When life forces you to slow down, sometimes take the cue. Take a beat, rejuvenate and return refreshed to face what life brings next because trust me, whatever is coming next, is going to be so stressful that you'll wish you could go back to when things were slow to rest. So, don't wish, take the beat now. When life forces you to slow down, don't spend all the time worrying about why or the next steps or what your peers are doing, actually SLOW DOWN.