One of the things young adults are unaware of is the number of times life will get you starting over.
Myself, I always saw life as a continuous affair. I have to admit this perspective cost me a lot. I have lived in a dreamy and resigned state, where I expect life to just happen to me. However, after I turned 30 years in 2024, I started feeling the urge to live life on my own terms. To create new opportunities for myself instead of walking into whichever door that opened before me. The whole of 2024, I was running an enterprise handed over by a caring relative. However, I was secretly dissatisfied because it was not my choice of business as it ignored some of my talents and kept me under the patronage of another individual. It is not that I hate patronage, but I find it is only beneficial if the patron is a master in that field and the patronee entered the arrangement freely. That was me in my twenties, walking into all doors that opened before me because I was largely afraid meeting life on my own terms.
So, this year 2025, I decided to create my own door. It was scary. I had to downgrade my lifestyle. I took the road less travelled. That is when it dawned on me, that transitions are bound to be numerous in one’s life. The thing is to have enough faith in your abilities to adapt to new circumstances. Most importantly, to decide what you want out of life and take action towards that want.
Speaking of life transitions, I have had several. One, is when I became a parent at the age of 19 years. I recall childbirth being an extremely draining affair such that when I left the delivery room, I swore to sleep continuously for the next few days. I remember climbing my maternity bed and as I proceeded to cover myself and fall into slumber, a nurse came in holding a baby and placed it next to me. It suddenly hit me that I am responsible for the care of another human and that reality took away my desire to sleep and shook me to my core. Boom, transition!
Another, moment of my life’s transition was when I quit a paying job in October 2020. I had worked for this financial services company for at least four years. The salary was paid promptly on 24th of every month. However, the job was eating at my physical and mental health, so I decided to resign. Fast forward to the following month on the 24th day, I was grieved by the fact that thousands of my former colleagues at the previous job had received their salaries. They had the money and I did not. I felt a sudden crashing depression lodge in my heart. Boom, transition!
I could recount numerous occasions where I had to start life all over. What I know is that transitions challenge everything you think you know about life. It forces you to create new perspectives. I wish I could say transitions get easier with time, but I would be lying. Lying is unforgivable in writing, because truth gives so much power.
# Life stories
# Lifestyle
