Outside the Wire

Hardly do I think about life outside where I'm from. I think that's generally normal for people, especially if you aren't the traveling type like me. In the few times that I've been to other places very far from home, I mostly enjoyed the new experiences and being with people completely different from me.

There was a funeral service a close family wanted to have, and we really wanted to attend. The only thing that could stop us was that it wasn't in Nigeria. It was in Ghana, so we'd have to travel a lot more miles than usual. That entire experience of being there was exciting, to say the least.

I had never been on a plane before then, and I was feeling different emotions about it. The very reason I suddenly became uninterested in becoming a pilot was because the news of plane crashes at that time scared the hell out of me. And now we're going to into an actual plane. But I was going to be in a place for the first time, so I was excitedly scared, I guess.

Landing in Ghana felt and looked just like I was back at home. I am not sure if I thought the people would look any different or what the roads and buildings would look like. The only difference was that they had a different accent and spoke different languages.

Okay, I should mention this, even though it's a little bit awkward. The first night there, there was constant electricity, and until we left, it didn't blink. It was a strange thing for me back then. But that's, by the way.

From the hotel, the people, and how weird they looked at us at some point, knowing that we were foreigners, to the types of food we ate, and to what it was like to be in one of their large markets in Accra, I loved it.

You see, I found the reason I don't immediately feel excited at the idea of travelling is being in transit for so long. But if I'm being honest with myself, new places and experiences actually excite me.

Something I learned in the last year being in a different region in my country is how you get to really know a type of person for real when you actually live with them. I had heard certain stereotypes about some other tribes and only got to discover that they weren't exactly true and even how such stereotypes started in the first place. Over there, for example, they even think that pepper is all we know in my tribe, which actually has its clauses. And things like that.

There are many things one could try in a lifetime, but I think something really cool is to travel to new places and be out of their comfort zone. Have adventure filled with memorable moments and new tastes, and discover gems in places all around the world. At the very least, it helps one live in the moment and be happy.