INTO THE SEASON

by ene ijato - December 06, 2018

One riffed with the blatant business of re-evaluating pursuits and objectively defining choices. And then of course there’s the merry.

First of all. Season greetings. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the season of merry lights, heavy indulgences and whether or not, you have outgrown the rituals. Have you?

As a child, I always looked forward to December (Because, obviously, the end of school term). The whiff of celebrations wrapping the air immediately the calendar reads 1^st. The commercialized packaging in the secular cycle of extravagance in bottles of sparkling liquids flushed down merry throats. Ornamented trees ranging in various levels of aggrandizement, obligatory gift giving exploited by capitalist corporations in various disguises and for Nigerians, the migratory ritual of paying ancestral hometown homage, complete with cultural infusions.

December reminds me of a cycle. A cycle of failures and setbacks, of goals and achievements. Of childhood dreams and adulthood realities. Of ambitious dives, and the results however they turn out.

For me, it is a season riffed with the blatant business of re-evaluating pursuits and objectively defining choices.

As I sit by my quiet bedroom window and look out into the quiet streets, I am aware of the significance of hustle, of dreaming, of aiming. I realize without doubt that as long as I exist, the factors that influence my existence are significant. And as long as they are significant, my journey towards understanding them and creating my own existential effect, is significant in the spaces I inhabit and that is something to latch unto.

I recently experienced an existential crisis with full impact. It weakened me, and in some ways, strengthened me. Because asking questions teaches us more about a world we can only keep discovering.

I like December not because of the displays of splendour and immersive doses of merriment. I like December because I have chosen to let it remind me of my journey and my process. December could mean anything to anyone. For whatever reason, for whatever story it carries with it. But for me, December is simply, jollily a solid season.