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Sharon Arabambi
INST. Arquette
Eng 101- 02
20 September 2023
HOME
When people talk about the word ‘Home’ some refers to it a building, some
refers it to a place of abode, I refer it to a place I'm far away from. It's hard leaving a place you
have known all your life to an unknown destination, especially a destination where you are all
alone with no guidance or relative.
My home, a bungalow with 4 bedrooms and 4 bathtubs, is in a busy area or street where the rich
and the middleclass people in society stay at, a street filled with people who love each other
equally, who cook and check up on each other annually. A home many will say is where the
family is, I definitely do not disagree with that but a piece of me is still stuck in my fatherland, a
place called Nigeria, a place called HOME.
As I get older and obviously wiser, I yearn for socialization because I find myself in a
position that my accent makes every head turn, makes every eye filled with questions, makes
every ear twitch wanting to hear what I have to say, is that a good thing or a bad thing, I will
never know, I am proud of who I am and where I am from but I will feel better if I don’t have to
repeat myself more than six times for a teacher or someone to be able to understand what I have
to say. Let me take you on a visual tour ride to Nigeria, my home.
Always hot but never too burning for the skin----unless it is January when the sun feels too
close to the earth especially in Nigeria---- a typical Monday morning is quite different from a
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typical Monday morning in America, a Monday morning in Nigeria is always filled with
excitement and sometimes --- well 99% of the time filled with laziness, because by 8 am in the
morning I and my siblings are expected to be dressed and ready for the start of the school day,
which sometimes can be frustrating having to wake up by 5am in the morning trying to beat the
timeline so as not to be late to school. We go in uniforms, bag filled with books, lunch basket
filled with food, socks white, shoes black, it is quite exciting, until on your way to school, where
you will meet traffic, all parents trying to get their child to school on time and trying to get to
work on the time.
School time is always the busiest time on the road because of the number of people trying
to get to school and I won't necessarily say driving is much regulated in Nigeria, we hardly see
traffic lights so drivers or parents must use their discernment to be able to take a left turn or a
right turn. It was always a hassle to go to school, there are some students who take public
transport to school and some who walk to school, not because they want to, but they don't have
the available means and resources to get to school.
One week before resumption is always a cause of anxiety because you are literally counting
the number of days before your stressfilled semester begins. For me, it was exciting, I get to see
all my friends again, I get to experience school and all its mischief, I get to see my lovely
teachers again, but I was dreading the amount of homework always given on the first day of
school. I and my group of friends always gossiping about all that went down during the holiday
especially since I did not have a phone hence I had no way to keep in touch with my friends, but
that Monday morning when the halls and corridor of Livingstone college is filled with students
with aspirations, new students wanting to make new friends, seniors itching to leave the school
and me, just chilling.
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Now you wonder why my secondary school as you all know it as ‘high school’ is called a
college, well school system was way different in Nigeria, we had the primary school that goes
for 8 years plus kindergarten and we had secondary school that goes for 6yrs and then we have
university that goes for the number of years your course has to offer, I went to a private school
owned by the prestigious Mr. and Mrs. Abiri, they owned both the secondary and the primary
school I went to, we can say they were rich and since it was a private school, the owners of the
school were the ones that gave it its name ‘Livingstone college’.
Of course, we have the farmers market, We did not have groceries stores like Hannaford or
Sams club where we did our monthly shopping, in Nigeria we had a big market, where sellers
shout, scream or even dance to attract buyers, in that market we the buyers are the ‘king’ of that
place because there are so many options, we can bargain for the goods and most of the times the
sellers just had to settle for that price in order to make sales that day, people or children carrying
stuffs on their head to sell on the road and on the street just to make ends meet or just to get
money to be able to eat that day, as exciting as that may sound to anyone that place can also be
dangerous for some people who don’t know the tricks of getting a good price and for those who
tries to carry any valuables such as phones, car key, purse filled with money without keeping or
strapping them in your hands.
Each day I long to go back to my home even though it's just for a visit but I want to feel the
scorching sun of Nigeria, I want to hear the hustle and bustle that always goes on the road and in
the market, I want to eat a homemade food made by all the street vendors, it may not be healthy
but I still love it, I want to once again feel the adrenaline rush that Nigeria usually bring, it may
sound sad or depressing but we Nigerians are strong set of people and can survive any hardship
with big smiles on our face
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