It’s been a while since I wrote this post about experiences Nigerians can relate to. Since then, I’ve realized that spending 6 hours on the road for a trip that should take about 45 minutes, is specific to the city I lived in (to every other Nigerian who couldn’t relate, abeg no vex). My whole life in Nigeria revolves around the city I grew up in, and I barely spent time in other parts of the country. So, I view my experience of the country through the lens of my life, in my city.
We tend to project what we already know to other situations around us, but we don’t often question if it’s really fitting. I get that we do that because our brains find it easier to generalize, or maybe we put too much faith/trust in the source of the information. I think it’s realistic to expect this type of generalization, but what really grinds my gears is when a specific view is held as the only/ultimate way of being. Why?
For example, I’ve had people tell me that they didn’t think I was a particular component of my identity because I was behaving in ways contrary to what they expected. Okay, so can you then expand that perspective? There are so many different ways of being and think it’s more helpful to us to see them as just that. It can be a lot, I know, but if there’s any truth that to an average person using only 10% of the brain capacity in a lifetime, then we definitely have the range. Put that brain to work!
differentshadesofbrown 