Nobody prepared us for this, not really,they said grow up, be responsible, make something of yourself , but nobody sat us down and said "hey, one random Tuesday you are going to be standing in your kitchen at 11pm eating cold rice straight from the pot because you forgot to eat since morning, and that is going to be your life now." nobody said that part.
Tide found out what adulting really meant on a Thursday.
Not a dramatic Thursday, it was not a Thursday with rain and cinematic music playing in the background,Just a regular, dry air Lagos Thursday where NEPA had taken light since morning and his generator was drinking fuel like it had a personal vendetta against his account balance.
He called his friend Seun.
'Guy, I just paid rent, electricity bill, and data subscription in the same week.'
Seun did not even flinch, 'Welcome to the other side.'
'What other side? nobody told me there was another side.'
'Everybody knows there's another side'
'i didn't know.'
'You knew.'
Tide sat on his bed, the one he was still paying for in installments and stared at the ceiling, Three months ago he had been excited about his new apartment, His own space, no parents monitoring his movement, no younger siblings finishing his food, freedom. That was the word he used when he packed his things, freedom.
Freedom, it turned out, cost forty five thousand naira a month before you even touched food.
His mother called that evening, He almost didn't pick up because he knew what was coming the check in that wasn't really a check in.
'Tide, how are you?'
'I'm fine ma.'
'You've eaten?'
A pause, He looked at the pot on the counter, there was garri somewhere. Maybe, "Yes ma."
' you don't sound fine.'
'I'm just tired.'
She went quiet for a second, the way mothers do when they know exactly what's going on but are giving you space to say it yourself, he didn't take the space, pride is a fulltime roommate when you are a young adult trying to prove something to everybody including yourself.
'okay,'she said, 'Call me if you need anything.'
He wanted to say, I need someone to remind me to eat,i need someone to tell me what to do when my landlord is giving me attitude and my boss is sending emails at 9pm and I don't know how to do my taxes and I think I have been washing this bedsheet wrong for six months.
He said, 'I will ma Goodnight.'
He hung up and sat with the silence.
This was the thing nobody explained about adulting , it wasn't just about money, although money was everywhere in the conversation, it was the weight of being the one who figures things out now, growing up, there was always someone above you in the chain, someone who knew, Someone who had the answer or at least pretended to, now Tide was the someone, and most days he was pretending too.
He texted his group chat him, Seun, and their friend Abike who had just gotten married and therefore everyone agreed had unlocked the final boss level of adulting.
'How do you people do this every day?'
Abike replied first, 'My brother I don't know, i just wake up and start doing.'
Seun sent a voice note. Tide played it, it was just Seun laughing for eleven seconds and then saying 'e go be' and hanging up.
That was it, that was the advice, E go be.
And the annoying thing the truly annoying thing,bwas that it helped. Not because it solved anything, the rent was still forty five thousand, the light was still out, the garri was still the only confirmed food in the house,but something about knowing that everyone around you was also just waking up and doing, just figuring it out in real time, just saying e go be to themselves in the dark it made the ceiling easier to stare at.
Tide got up, found the garri, and made a bowl.
Adulting,Nobody prepared them for it.
But somehow, they were all still here.
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