It will be Christmas in about a week and some few days from now and here in Nigeria, people love to travel down to their villages at the end of the year to go meet their various family members to celebrate the holidays with them. But unlike most people who make it a habit to travel down there every year, my dad rarely took us to the village and no, this isn't me complaining.
I actually appreciated the fact that we didn't travel down there much because everytime we did travel to the village, it always felt like a nightmare. The only fun thing about travelling there was the trip itself and nothing else. The village has always been boring and scary to me, maybe because I was born and brought up in the city and all I've heard about the villages are scary things and nothing good.
So each year where we don't travel to the village was actually a good year for me but I've been thinking of recent about that whole thing and the effect it's having on me and will probably have on my children unborn. Over here in Nigeria, travelling down to the village and also being known and seen by your relatives down there is always seen as a huge deal, both of which I'm really poor at. Aside from my dad's siblings, I know no other extended relatives and I doubt they know me too.
I remember telling my parents one time that if I had my way to leave this country, I would never want to come back for anything and my dad had asked me what about my home (he was talking about the village), to which I told him that I have no business there. He immediately shunned me and I'm sure that for a minute there, he felt bad for not taking us down there often.
Sometimes he even threaten to take us to the village and leave us there whenever we misbehave at home. That's how much he knows that we hate travelling down to the village. But sadly, it shouldn't be that way, the village should be one place I should be comfortable and happy going to if everything was right.
But yeah, it is what it is and like I said, this isn't me complaining. It's just the right side of my brain telling myself the correct thing, a moment of truth I might say, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to do anything about it. I've never liked the village and I honestly have no plans with familiarising or hanging out there for any reason.