Take Me Back To December 25 2021

The yuletide festivities has never been my favorite holiday celebration, it is not even among my top 5 even though it has a lot of anticipation attached to it. However there was a time when I appreciated it the season because it meant spending the holidays with family, enjoying the freedom of mingling with my peers, resting from academic pressures, feasting in numerous meals and most importantly getting new clothes  which so happens to the main talk amongst the boys. The boy with the nicest attire is automatically made the leader of the group and spearheads our movement from the eve of Christmas till after the new year celebration.

These makes up of all my fondest memories of the Yuletide as a child and are still quite special to me untill this very day because back then I had nothing to worry about other than having fun and eating to my heart's content. Nevertheless these fall in the pinnacle as my favorite memory of this period, it was a day filled with mixed emotions which I'll never forget and it goes like this.

In year 2021 I was still an undergraduate who has been away from home for over eight months and haven't seen my closest friend in over two years. We both had plans to come back home for the December holiday and also mingle with the last member of the group who has been at home all these while because he did not choose the path of academics. I came back 8 days before Christmas, the last person to return from school and with that plans for our Christmas. Realizing we did not possess enough funds to carry out our plans, we finally decided to attend a free entry party which holds on Christmas day at Stanel Bakery Suleja Niger state.

On that faithful, all three of us gathered at my place to see how much we all had as a unit only to discover all our resources combined was not up to three thousand naira which would not amount to nothing. We boarded a public transit to the location exhausting a thousand naira from the money. When we got there, the place was bubbling with energy, local artists were performing, children were playing on the bouncy castle and swings while the adults were either dancing or just having a good time amongst themselves. The whole scene was captivating and so we decided to join in on the fun. After mingling with the few folks we were acquainted with in the crowd, I suggested we buy some ice cream from the money left but unfortunately it was not enough to buy for each of us so we just bought a plate of Fan Milk and shared it like a bunch of kids.

The party raged on till past 10 , we took pictures, danced for a bit before heading back home. Unfortunately after pursing the ice cream we were left with not enough transport fare back home so it was obvious we would be trekking back home which we did. That long walk happened to be one of the best I have ever had and the last the three of us did today as the guy who did not go to school (Somadina) died the next year. I still look back to that day with a smile on my face and doubt if I have ever been that happy ever since. This might sound like an average of normal day to some people but to me that experience is one that holds the utmost value in my life. I don't believe in going big before a memory is regarded as memorable, the little things matter a lot to me and this happens to be the biggest little thing for the yuletide....
THANK YOU.