AIR-CLINIC WRITING CONTEST ON STRESS, THE QUEST TO MEET ENDS MEAT

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Two years after the completion of my university education I decided to move to Lagos in search of greener pastures. Ile-ife, where I had lived most of my life had nothing of such in its keep, Opportunities were as scanty as the city’s streets by midday. Most hustles in Ile-ife were not constructed with the expectation to make a good living, but just to achieve mere surviving. I was among the privileged few who had a paying job, but the money I was earning monthly would only cater to my needs if I didn’t include feeding, utility bills and transportation fares. After few months of living hand to mouth in Ile-ife, I made up my mind to move to Lagos.
My salary in Lagos was exactly three times my take-home in Ile-ife and it wasn’t even up to a hundred thousand naira.

My new salary made me feel on top of the world until the cost of living in Lagos humbled me. Rent for a room in a decent area was four times my rent back home. I usually had to lift two 25 litre gallons of water from the central tank at the back of the building to my room on the fourth floor. I had to wake up before dawn and return home after dusk, braving over four hour traffic jams daily, surviving the intermittent menace of Oshodi under-bridge boys, who have now relieved me of my phone and wallet, switching jobs for better pay and career growth, and managing the expectations of my parents and younger ones back home, who are half-breath between lamenting that I don’t send back enough money and pleading that I return home. Lagos is a city bound by stress. Everybody here is a hustler. In the end all this running up and down is to make money and here we are, we don't even have the money. I have no plans of leaving Lagos any time soon because I believe I will one day be successful, I just made sure I do my medical checkups @air-clinic regularly, so I don't breakdown.

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