THIS IS YOUR STORY

Our Story,

The Average Nigerian Story.

I just arrived home after a busy day at work, and the only thing on my mind right now, is, rest; sleep if possible, but that seems to be far away from me at this moment. So I sit myself at the bar and begin to drink ‘the ale that cures all ails’ whilst reminiscing the activities of this past week.

There has been nothing out of the ordinary; Monday — to — Friday, same old routine.

I go to work very early in the morning so as to beat the traffic, sit at my workstation and complete my tasks, or run errands (it depends). During the lunch break, I hardly go out; as I have little or no energy for social interactions. I am overwhelmed by all the work that has to be done, and I am ashamed of my protruding belly; a result of my unhealthy weight gain. So instead, I order for my lunch.

By closing time I am already exhausted, but unhappy about a million other things I still have to do.

Today I drove myself home and sat here; nursing my never ending headache, while awaiting dinner.

The silence of the house is suddenly broken by my loud outburst to my domestic help,

“Why did you put my plate of soup on the left when you know I prefer it to be on the right”,

as he quickly stuttered “ I’m sorry “ while trying to fix the plates. But as he reached for the plate, I startled him again, as I made a rant with the top of my voice, which resulted him to quickly dropping the plate and its contents spilled all over the floor. By this time, I was furious, so I just rushed into my room and slammed the door.

Muttering about ‘what waste of time it was to employ someone’, I changed out of my clothes, washed my face and decided to go to bed.

At exactly 11pm came with my nightly struggle — with — sleep, so I sat up and began to think of anything that came to mind; the first being this evening’s incident. It then occurred to me that in the past few months I had overreacted over little incidents and lashed out on people (colleagues, the gateman, waiters and now my help) over the smallest of issues. But this was not me, I was an easy-going person who rarely got angry. I blamed my short fuse on my headaches, but then my headaches were caused by lack of sleep. The lack of sleep was caused by the fact that I had to wake up very early in the morning in order to be early for work .

The more I thought about it, the more realised it was an unending circle and I was caught in it. I grabbed my planner and went through it, and I realized that I had not taken a break in more than 10 months. It was the stress that was getting to me.

There and then I made a resolve, I was going to take one day off every week and just unwind and relax. I was going to seek help. I was going to engage in healthier coping mechanisms because I honestly did not like the person I was becoming.

With that thought in mind I drifted off to sleep ,with a smile on my face that Monday was going to be a public holiday to mark ‘Worker’s Day’.

I Ruth

@_ruthie_