Find Your Magic & Flourish
IG @akinfiyin
Life’s rough, and some of us had it rougher than the rest. Life’s full of mysteries and unanswered questions, amongst other things. No one has all the answers — we just need to find ourselves, our purpose, and whatever works for each of us and keep at it. This is going to take a whole lot of your time, and in most cases your whole life, to figure out.
Being African and especially Nigerian in this 21st century, it often feels very difficult to find oneself, and even more difficult with parents from the 40s, 50s and 60s who’ve had their imagination constrained to not being able to think outside the box. Discovering oneself will be the most difficult thing a Nigerian can think of because there is always a distraction. It can be from family, school (that never actually does any real teaching), religion, peers and society at large. Each of these institutions will try, at some point to confine you to a certain way of reasoning and when you actually try to think or do something for yourself, you will get strong reactions from the mentioned institutions, mostly about how you have derailed from their norms.
“The world needs bold, fearless, people… the majority of people will only feed on whatever the media gives to them...”
But the actual reality which everybody seems to be unaware of is that the world needs you to be the best that you can possibly be, because only then will you be able to serve your purpose for being alive on planet Earth. Eventually, as you grow and you enter “the bigger world”, you realize that you don’t really know anything and you will probably end up winging it til you find your place in the world. But finding your place in the world may never happen that way, so the time you have wasted winging it could’ve been better spent on finding yourself, what you love and mastering yourself for your higher purpose. To me, that’s decolonization. I’m inspired by people who go beyond the norm or show defiance to social norms tend to standout. They’re exactly the kind of people the world needs. The world needs bold, fearless people like theses to tell them what’s what because if not, the majority of people will only feed on whatever the media gives to them, and they’ll look externally for validation. Look within.
At first, living in a decolonized capacity might not make sense to those who have been conditioned in a more mainstream way. But follow your gut, remain true to yourself and keep at it — you will only get better at finding and knowing your true essence. Equip yourself with the right knowledge that will propel you, build your mental health to take on the harsh reactions society will throw at you, fade out the noise, study your history, go harder at whatever it is you are doing, and remember that the world is yours to take on.