RUMBLING THOUGHTS

 Hi😁😁😁

I'm so sorry I couldn't post last week 🙈🙈. Life kind of got in the way. 

You know how you'll have plenty things to say but no words to properly articulate them? That's how I've been feeling for a little while now. Sha, I'm just going to be gisting about a couple of things that have been on my mind, please stay with me till the end. 

The first thing I'm going to talk about is this madness between Ukraine and Russia. Now the whole of last week, while everyone was talking, I didn't join in becaause I was scared; I have two friends studying in Ukraine so the fact that they were in the middle of the whole thing deprived me of any thought on the matter other than "God abeg make dem commot from there safe". Thankfully, they're both out and now, with some measure of rest, I can now talk. I've been following the whole argument on who between Russia's Putin and Ukraine's Zelenskyy, and even US' Biden, is in the right. But I'm more concerned with the people who are really innocent –those these men are leading; the wives who even now are widows but aren't aware yet, the children who'd grow up without fathers because a couple of men were power-drunk, women who would never get the weddings they've planned because their intended have been killed on the battle front, girlfriends who'd have to start all over again because their boyfriends have been killed, and then the soldiers themselves who have to give their lives to sponsor the political aspirations of some men. These people, to me, are the ones who are really in the right. As my friends were trying to get out of Ukraine, I thought of the citizens of the Country who didn't have homes outside to go to and whose homes are now unsafe for them, people caught in the middle with nowhere to turn, and my heart breaks for them. And that's the real tragedy in this whole situation, the fact that one day those in power will come to a truce and return to their lives, while those at the bottom of the political ladder will have their lives irrevocably altered by this. Like everyone else, I pray this doesn't escalate and a swift end comes to this whole war because it's completely unnecessary. So rather than try to play judge between Russia and Ukraine, let's pray for those who are the real ones being affected. 

So the next thing that's been on my mind is our reaction to depression. Yesterday, news broke our that a 3rd year student of Actuarial Sciences in University of Jos committed suicide. Like every other time I hear such news, I'm deeply saddened by the fact that life becomes so terrible for these people that the only thing that begins to make sense to them is killing themselves. Now, I'm not talking about depression today, I'm talking about the way we react to people who are facing it. We live in a part of the world where we're forced to be strong and made to think it's not normal to show any form of weakness or emotional trauma, and what's the result? A bunch of sick people all pretending to be fine just to fit into society's mold. So, even when topics surrounding people's mental state comes up, everyone is quick to shush it, or belittle people's mental struggles. As a result, people rarely, if ever, seek the necessary help they need for mental issues they struggle with, yet we all wonder why people end up taking their lives. I remember mentioning to someone quite recently how something has made me depressed for a while and the response I got was "Favour you any small thing, you go dey depressed. You go just dey let everything touch you" and a bunch of other things that were honestly very insensitive. That conversation got me wondering how many people like me tried to speak up on some mental struggles they were facing and received unnecessary rebuff instead of help and the dire consequences that followed which may not just be suicide, thankfully I was already passed the depression phase when we had this conversation. So, I'm asking you today not to belittle people's pains. You may not understand it, it may not be something that would get to you but please, do not make them feel abnormal for feeling the way they do, it's our tendency to talk people down in such circumstances that makes them self isolate and that's the point where the devil preys on them and pushes them to take their lives. Be willing to be the listening ear they need, sometimes you might not even have an answer to their pain but the thought that someone cares for their situation will definitely keep them pushing. When we see people in pain, let's react in love first, there's no telling just what you'd be saving them from. 

I'm so sorry this post is so long and I'm grateful that you actually stayed with me to this point, and I hope you learnt something too. 

I hope you're doing alright, please know that you can always find a listening ear in me, no matter what you're going through.

Please feel free to share your experiences and/or thoughts. 

Love,

Achenyo.