I hate Mondays. They always find a way to dictate my week because it is the first day of the week.
Sometimes Monday's could be fun, they could be nice and meaningful, other times they could be such a discouraging day that you would wish the next day was Friday.
The weekends feel like just a flash of light now, a glimpse of fun and relaxation before your eyes snap open and..
It was a colorful morning. As always fate chose a spontaneous way to wake me up and make me appreciate the gift of life, indeed the cockroach scuttling on my bed was a nice touch.
After a minor irrelevant battle I slayed the beast and got ready for my day by 4am.
The neighbors complained to my parents about sounds of a girl screaming, sobbing and begging a beast to just die and they came to ask me if I knew anything about it. I'm sure it was just the wind.
I had a class by 8am, I woke up by 4am, and I planned to have my bath for the class by 9am.
I believe that life shouldn't be held by such strict time restraints. Live in the moment, Hakuna Matata, YOLO...
"Emmanuel!!! Mum's calling you to take the dogs in." My sister called, interrupting me from preparing my excuses to give to my lecturer when I waltz into his class of two hours with just fifteen minutes left on the clock.
I went out to rally the 3 canines, and herd them to their respective kennels.
The sun was just coming up, the clouds looked heavy and the wind had moisture on it.
I prided myself in my ability of being able to predict if rain was nearby with just a whiff of the wind.
In an act of sheer spontaneity to myself, I decided to take my bath… before the time I earlier planned and at least attempt to be punctual to this class.
It was the third week of August, the year of financial abundance had just four months remaining.
In the shower, I smiled as I remembered how easy it was to make those claims in January.
Setting a yearly target in my account, the same target that is now targeting my life with its weekly automatic money reductions - not like there's any money to reduce anyways.
I mulled at that for the moment...
It was all going so well... When did we get lost?
"Maybe a drop in concentration?"
"Or perhaps we had spread ourselves too thin?"
"Or maybe the life of a typical Nigerian teenage boy is just a drag."
“Or maybe all of the above”
My mind voices debated and argued, each weighing one option against the other, a select few weird voices chose all of the above though.
The voice that was in charge -the voice I believed was in charge- chose the same thing.
So it was with a heavy heart, a depressed mind and an empty pocket that I set off to school today, reached the class at 8:05 (a personal record) and found out that the lecturer wasn't going to make the class today.
I sat on the bench of the now empty classroom looking at the message sent by my course rep at the time 6:45.
At that time, I had just come out of my bath, gone offline and put my phone in charge.
The irony of the situation didn't escape me. The only class I had managed to be borderline early for is the class that didn't hold.
Although the severity of the current situation temporarily ground any funny bone in my body to dust.
I had come for a class that didn't hold. Wasted valuable sleep time, wasted money for transportation and the worst part is that I had wasted a perfectly good outfit and clean underwear.
A colorful morning usually led to a colorful day and those quite often had me vomiting rainbows by evening. I didn't want to go back home because I had just left and I didn't want to answer questions on how unserious my lecturers were.
I couldn't stay in the classroom alone -because that would be weird- besides, another lecturer had come with his class to take the free venue.
So I found myself casually strolling school grounds, earpiece in my ear, scrolling through my contacts at who to call and feeling a bit more downcast everytime it rang without an answer.
After the tenth try at calling, I had another ironic moment, noticing I had over 200 contacts but no one to call.
Hence it was just a walk today, me and the music.
On this walk, there was a lot of thinking, then a lot of singing and a little bit of dancing. Mind you it was just about 11am in the morning and here I was strumming my imaginary guitar and mouthing the words to Ren's take of the song "Englishman In New York".
I got a lot of stares but at that point I didn't care.
I was tired of it all, tired of school, tired of the thoughts, of the day and of those who I called but for some reason didn't answer.
I chose my theme to be musical monday and on my trek, dancing, singing -sometimes screaming- I decided to let nothing and at the same time everything matter.
Rain started falling though, and even though I cared not for the stares nor the giggles of people I walked past, I didn't want to catch a cold so I hailed a cab to go back home.
On my way home, I thought of what I had accomplished today, being a Monday.
Despite maybe being a gist topic headline in school as the tall happy crazy trekker with a lovely voice - absolutely nothing.
The cab reached my drop and I reluctantly handed over the five hundred naira note and got my hundred naira change back.
I had done nothing on a Monday, does it mean that this week would amount to nothing too?
I have no idea.. regardless, I'd still go on.
Would try but probably fail to get to class early tomorrow, wonder what I would write on my test on Wednesday, then I have to be perfectly groovy and slick for the pool party on Friday.
I wouldn't allow Monday to dictate my week's vibe, and even if it does, well that's Monday's problem, I'd bring the vibe whenever I need it.
"From the moment you're born, you begin to die. So make every moment count."
~ Seneca
Been on a bit of a mental block since friday and so I decided to just write whatever I felt after my day on Monday. Luckily, it came out something like a story so here it is😂😂
Header Image link is embed in the image, 2nd image was generated using Meta AI, YouTube link is just for entertainment and enlightenment purposes, I lay no claim to its ownership and it was gotten from the corresponding account on YouTube.
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