I'll start with an "interesting" story told to me my a former co-worker. The event happened in Jos, Nigeria, while the region was rife with religious and ethnic clashes. At the time, my former co-worker was in secondary school, and her classmate (let's call him Murife) had been sent on an errand to a street a few blocks away.

While Murife was away, a crisis ensued, the streets were turned upside down and Murife was not answering his phone. Eventually someone answered the phone and said something like, "me I don kill the pesin wey get this phone, I don troway hìn body inside one well". Weeks, months, years passed and Murife was never seen, or heard of again.

I've extended this story in my head, that this guy got tired of the hustle after peace was restored in the area, and relocated to Lagos in search of redder (read, greener) pasture. Maybe you even crossed paths and you both did that thing where you tried to go left, and he goes left and then you go right, and he goes right, okay, okay, imagination wan wound me, I'll stop.

The bottom line is, the random person you meet on the street could be a really really nice person, or he/she could kill a boy and troway hìn body inside one well. So please don't pick unnecessary fights and tone down the "I don't take nonsense" narrative. Please take nonsense, if it won't cost you anything worthwhile, especially if it's just your ego.

The second part of my rant emanates from a tweet I saw earlier today, explaining the circumstances surrounding the death of a young man, around my age, who had hitherto been declared missing — and subsequently, unalived by armed robbers*.*

When I read that tweet, a realization dawned on me. It could have very easily been me, there's absolutely no reason why it couldn't, from the timing, to the place it happened and all. May Allah forgive his misdemeanours and grant him the loftiest paradise. Aameen.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know you have grand plans for the future, however, I'll implore you to consider that you may not actually live that long. Put your affairs in order and try to live every day. There's more than a thousand ways to die at every moment, being alive is a miracle in it's own right.

Ciao 😁