2020 was an iconic year in more ways than one, and depending on where you live, a whole lot of things must have happened. Many of us would like to forgive and forget that year, well to forget, for most of us, not necessarily forgive. In 2020, I had thought that year was fun when schools were shut down after the outbreak of the Corona virus(let me not even get started on this virus), we were asked to stay home, and I must say, that was a blissful period. I could get away with not going to school, the joy and the comfort it brought was massive for me. Mind you this is what I felt then.
We had another crisis while we were still trying to heal from the Covid, the End SARS Protest, now this was a bloody event and a whole bunch of people died, school was stopped again because no one felt safe enough to leave their homes, the effect of this crisis was heavy in all sectors of our society and at this point, I wasn't enjoying my stay at home. I had long gotten bored of it as there was nothing to do besides being on my phone all day, and things become repetitive real quick.
We stayed home for a long while, then when it seemed like things were starting to smooth out, we had the shortage of currency crisis happen also known as the "Cashless" period. Now this was when I started hating the fact that we were at home. Trading became difficult, you had money in your bank account but couldn't access it, you couldn't buy food or daily necessities as everyone wanted cash but had none to trade with, the price of goods went up and the price of money too. You had to buy money before you could buy whatever you wanted. It was a crazy period and things were really difficult.
Now, I know some of us who are familiar with these events may not want to remember it at all, so here is why I am putting you through this; I believe I wasted my time throughout this period of quite difficult events. From 2024 upwards, after I got into tech, I started seeing a lot of things I could've started doing with the excessive free time I used to have at the time. There was a surge of users and creators in the internet during that period and I realized that people learnt all kinds of skills then, including but not limited to social media. I have always loved writing, yet I didn't write then. I just chatted with my classmates, consumed content both on the internet and movies, ate, slept and repeated the drill, whereas my mates and peers used that time to do all kinds of really big things.
You don't know what you have till you lose it. You cannot make progress if you are comfortable. This period, I am uncomfortable on a regular basis with my stage in life and it is something that makes me improve on a regular basis too. I realized that comfort is a killer, it allows you to wallow in what you may think is the best place for you, while also killing you, taking away your ability to dream, to create, to reproduce, to move forward. It's a sweet quagmire. I try to imagine how far I might have gone in any any area if I had started then, it's been five years and I am sure whatever you have given five years will be at a master level. But then again I was a child both mentally and physically, I had no mentors yet and I just did what I wanted within the boundaries of my parents' influence.
I see others follow the same pattern and I try to warn them, but you know what, life will teach them too, as it did for me, because people tend to do what they want, it doesn't matter what you say anyways. I have tried to live my life with as little regrets as possible, but I do regret that time. It was really a waste of potential and talent, but it is not late as we know it, better late than never right? My biggest issue with 2020 is ME!
The Penitself!
