I never, ever thought I would ever miss Lagos, but today for a brief moment I did. Just a teeny weeny, of course. From time to time, I would talk about my experiences from living in Lagos for over two decades and why I do or do not miss Lagos. Today is not the day. I had an appointment today with an organization. Now, there are several branches of this organization around the city, but there is a branch very close to my house. In fact, it's a walking distance. So, when on Monday, I received a call that went like this:
"May i speak with Ifeoluwa?"
"Yea, this is she."
"Ok, great. Please come over at 9:15am tomorrow."
"Oh, thanks. Whom do I ask for?"
"Jasmine. Ask for Jasmine."
"Thank You!"
"Yea. Bye."
I automatically assumed it was the branch by my house, since that was were I scheduled my appointment with anyway, online. I wonder why it just did not occur to her to maybe, you know drop a hint about where they usually have such appointments. I left home 9am, I figured even if the car crawled, I would at least have gotten there by 9:15am. I got to the branch by my house and was redirected elsewhere, I smiled sheepishly as I walked out. Little did I know. Of course, I got the description of where I was headed from the woman that attended to me. From 9am, it took me about three hours to get to my destination. Yes, three good hours. I went to two different branches as well before getting to my final destination. Exasperated or exhausted does not begin to describe it. What pissed me off the most was how people were describing the route. The customer care woman in the second branch I went to said something like:
"Once you leave here, turn right, go straight, you would see a JP Morgan Chase company. There's a T junction, turn left at the T junction, then turn right, that's where we are."
Pretty straightforward right? right? Yea Right! We were just going round and round in circles. There was nothing close to what she said. The customer care woman at the branch I was going to, was so grumpy. I had so much faith in the customer care system in this country, and frankly until today, it has been nothing but excellent. So guess what, I must have called so many times, the woman got frustrated. I just kept thinking, 'This whole state isn't even that big. You can drive around in less that three hours.' So, what the heck is wrong? We drove around just a small city (The city is a part of our county. Our county is one of the counties in the state.) This was where Lagos came up. Who gets lost in Lagos? Seriously? Nobody. There's always someone to ask or call. I trust okadamen! They definitely don't dull at all. I really wanted to go back home, because I was tired and hungry and it did not seem like we were making progress. And as my people would say;
"Ti a o ba mo ibi ti a n lo, a sha mo ibi ti a tin bo"
(If you don't know where you're going, you should at least know where you're coming from.)
Anyway, I finally got to the branch, and guess what, I was too late so I'd to re-schedule.The branch was completely off the JP Morgan Chase the earlier woman talked about, by the way. SMH. My Daddy usually asks us to be grateful in whatever situation. He also always tells us to find the good in whatever circumstance. And, that's what I did today, or at least tried to do. It's very synonymous with life. We are always lost. There are times, we set out for a particular journey in life and then we are handed several disappointments, surprises and delays along the way. We navigate through different routes and ask for help from family, friends or even complete strangers and in most cases, they might not be able to help too. While no man is an island on his own, there are some challenges God has designed for us to solve ourselves. It will be frustrating, it will be exhausting...sometimes, you will starve and in more terrible cases, you may even cry. But eventually, you will get there. That of course is if you do not quit. And it takes a lot of determination, persistence and perseverance to NOT quit. I like how people say something about how failing or falling is not the problem, the real problem is quitting or refusing to get up. So, if you are lost in any area of you life, like I was today and you're thinking of quitting, I strongly advise that you don't. On getting home, my Dad jokingly suggested I carried a bottle of water the next time I'm heading out. I'm definitely going to do that. So if you're on a journey and you seem lost, just prepare, ask for help and be really determined. You will get there!
Love,
Ifeoluwa.
No comments