My speed bump and I
Hi, it’s been a while…
Speed bumps are ridges set at intervals in a road surface to intentionally reduce the speed of vehicles. You’re driving at 80km/hr and you’re approaching a speed bump in 20 metres, you automatically slow down so you can pass. The speed bump essentially slows you down. Most times, there are 3 to 4-speed bumps in a row which you have to pass through before you’re back on your way. Sometimes, this can be frustrating especially when you’re in a hurry or you’re enjoying the smooth ride you’ve been on.
I’ve been hitting a lot of speed bumps in life recently and honestly speaking I’m drained. I even hit a few bumps writing this piece (it has taken me over three months to write up to this paragraph). How have I been hitting bumps? I keep moving forward but then I almost always hit a snag and get pushed back a bit. I don’t know if that makes much sense, so I’ll give a real-life example.
I got a job offer sometime in March just when I was finishing my national service and it was a really good one. It was what I had been working towards for the past two years, and the offer felt like a reward for my efforts. I couldn’t take the job eventually, due to circumstances out of my control and that was my largest speed bump(there have been others this year sadly). I had gotten to a stage where I was qualified enough to get such a job but at the end, I couldn’t even take it. I was sad, angry and depressed for weeks after that happened. I just wasn’t myself and dealing with this wasn’t easy.
In my experience, when you hit a speed bump on the road you do one of two things — push forward and climb it or get pushed back temporarily.
Sometimes we fall in the latter category, I for one certainly did. It’s not all sad news though. I was able to move past my speed bump, it took some time but I did it. And I wasn’t alone, I had help from Stephanie Chizoba Odili and a host of other friends that are always there for me when I need them.
Why am I writing this? I’m writing this to let you know that you’re not alone. That snag, problem or situation you’re in, isn’t a brick wall. It’s just a speed bump on the road to your destination. I’m not going to give you a long ‘aspire to require’ speech about motivating yourself past whatever you’re going through. But what I will do is tell you that shit happens and we just have to learn to take the crookeds with the straights.
Take some time off and maybe turn off that car engine. Sit back and take deep breaths, it’s just a bump. You’re going to be fine; not like we have a choice.
