Run!!

It was a Thursday night. A Thursday night in 2006. It was 9pm. Arguably, the most eventful 9pm of my life. We’d just finished watching superstory. The Nigerian rave until telemundo and zeeworld. Because we were so captivated by superstory, we forgot that caprisonne had finished. And who went to school without caprisonne and biscuits? So, yours truly, volunteered to go buy caprisonne with my older brother.

The shop was just a few houses from our own, so it was a relatively short walk. We’d just finished paying for the caprisonne and we we’re about to go home. Suddenly, out of the darkness, we heard a cackle. A very disturbing laughter, accompanied by the words “una Don die this night” and something that sounded like running feet. We didn’t need the angels to tell us what to do at that point. We did what any right thinking human would do.  We ran. I, with my too short legs, my chubby cheeks, my too small head with my too plenty hair billowing in the wind, I ran. Usain Bolt would’ve lost to me in that moment. I ran so much, I ran past my house. Here’s the funniest part of the story. We don’t know, if the man was speaking to us, or chasing us. As a matter of fact, that man could’ve been a voice from a TV. We never looked back to check. We just ran till we got home. 

This is the moral lesson of this story. Your fears will chase you. They will come after you looking all bloodthirsty and dangerous. But it’s all a facade. Fear is lazy. It cannot muster enough strength to make you afraid. So, it wears costumes and makes disturbing noises. And it let’s your mind think up the worst possible scenario, lets you imagine and blow it’s trumpet. But it’s not real. However real it is, it isn’t real. It is true, you will be scared of some things. But, like everything else in life (except mother nature), you control the amount of power those fears hold over you. You give your fear stamina or you draw strength from it. 

So challenge your fears, in this race called life. Run with them, at first, like a bulldog, they will seem ferocious. But eventually, as you keep running, they reveal their innate chihuahua nature and stop.Keep running. Run just a little longer, and you’ll notice your fears, miles behind you, exhausted. Where there is fear, even greater courage abounds. 

So run! Although the darkness as a tough opponent, chases and threatens to swallow you like the waves, Run! The darkness will not survive the day. 

P. S; however, if you fear a dog, literally. Like a bulldog, do not run. I repeat, do not run. They will not stop until they have your hide. I say this from experience. No, I wasn’t the one chased, I watched the chase…from my room window. I’m really serious. Don’t run with a bulldog. OK, thank you. I hope you enjoyed your read.