On Your Marks,..., Ready,..., Go!

I guess you might be wondering about the title of this post (like, who is chasing you? lol), and that the cover image probably seems humorous, I mean, why would anyone want to race cheetahs, cheetahs?! Yes its weird, even crazy if you come to think of it, maybe stupid too, but isn't that the situation that most of us put ourselves in sometimes?

Think about it. How many times do you put yourself in a race with others, a stiff competition in which you must emerge winner? And when it seems like you are not winning or at least, keeping up with your self imposed competitors, depression sets in. So what if you and Tade graduated from secondary school together and now Tade is rounding up his degree programme in Harvard while you are still stuck in 200 level in a Nigerian University after all these years thanks to the incessant strikes? What about it? Do you know how many menial jobs Tade has to do to keep himself in school?

What if it seems like the latest trend among your friends is acquiring brand new cars and all you have is your old and beaten volvo that spends more time in the mechanic's workshop than on the road? Do you have any idea how much debt your friends might have gotten themselves into to get their new cars? You might also think about how your cousin Sola has turned into a millionaire overnight - the guy is so lucky with gambling, he keeps making such big wins from playing Baba Ijebu, and here you are, older than Sola by 3 years, but you don't own up to a third of what he owns.

So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to put all else at stake to look for any and every way possible to get a visa and admission into Yale so that you can measure up to Tade? Are you going to put up your family land as collateral to get a loan and buy yourself a brand new car too so you can conform to the status of your friends? What will you do about Sola, small boy compared to you! Will you also start playing 1960 bet so as to even out the playing field? What happens if perhaps, you lose all your life savings and don't win a single kobo back?

You need to realize that life is not a race. Even if it is a race, the only competition you should ever be in is one with your past self - always striving to be better than your past self. You can't keep being in competition with other people all the time, you'll only end up frustrated!

Some races should never even start, like the girl who wants to race the cheetahs up there. There just isn't any basis of comparison, no common ground on which to conduct the race. Cheetahs are built for speed, built to run, humans are not. Plain and simple! It's the same when you make yourself run a race with other people, you are not even meant to walk the same path with these people, you've got yours.

Run your own race.