MY FIRST TIME: THE DAY I LEFT MY COMFORT ZONE FOR GOOD

I don’t like leaving the house except to go to school, to Church, to the market, or to the little shop next door. I am so attached to the house that I would rather do everything at home and there have been times when I wished the school, market and the Church could come to me instead. This past week, I was glad I left my house. I don’t like the idea of camping even though I have never been to any. I have been to a retreat though and it was nice but I think, if all camps were indoor, air-conditioned, bug-free, and the sitting-on-plastic-chairs-writing-in-folders carrying-out-activities type, I would love camps. But they aren’t. This past week, I’m glad I got a similar experience. I don’t ever sleepover at a friend’s or a relative’s place simply because I like my house too much but, I did this past week and it was beautiful. It gave me a new take on things and I want to do it again.
We have a program called Small Groups in our Church’s Youth Ministry headed by our Youth Pastor Cephas whom we call Bros K and these groups are supposed to bring us closer and help us know others better. My group is led by Dr. Korb or Katrina as we all like to call her and she is quite the leader. There are five of us in this group, six including Katrina. The last person whom we have never met is Hauwa and the funny thing is, we all keep trying to guess who she is because we know a lot of people with that name. Linda, Lina and Beatrice are the others and, before you ask who the last person is, it’s me! Weeks back, we decided that since Katrina would be leaving the Country on sabbatical, we needed a get together and she suggested we get ready for a sleepover. We all said Yay! but deep down, I was thinking, “What???!!! I haven’t done this before.” Step one was convincing myself that it was going to go smoothly and step two was convincing my dad that it was a good thing for me. We finally settled on a date and it was Friday which was to be free for everyone. Thursday came and I was freaking out, literally, thinking about all the things that could happen from a pessimist’s point of view which means, I was thinking up all the possible scenarios of things going wrong. Nothing went wrong and not to bore anyone with the details, something spectacular happened: I liked it!!!
Katrina got us a masseuse, Rahila, who was really good with her hands. I couldn’t believe how tense I was. She went everywhere and not some places, for privacy sake. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven as she slowly ironed out the kinks in my body and made me relax for, probably, the first time in my life. She gave each of us a priceless massage and, did I mention she was good with her hands? So we asked how long she’d been at it and she said, “Close to ten years. I started because the lady I worked for had a masseuse who was leaving and she told me to watch and learn so I could continue when she left.” Well, I’ll say she’s got it covered. Katrina, Lina and Linda made us all delicious smoothies to take during the massage. I was in smoothie heaven.
After the massage, we had a bake-off, using Pita bread to make pizza and Katrina funnily called it “Cheat Pizza”. We filled it with spring onions, purple onions, green pepper, zucchini, sausage, stew, and cheese. I filled mine with stew, cheese, more cheese, even more cheese and chopped up sausage. I have to confess, I don’t eat onions, purple or spring. I don’t eat zucchini, not because it probably tastes funny, but because I’ve never tasted it. It took a few minutes and we sat down to feast. It was delicious and I can still tasted the flavors on my tongue. The next was Toll House Cupcakes and Chocolate Chip Cookies which, by the way, I binged on. We slept late and woke up the next morning to go for breakfast at a beautiful place but first, we had to stop to get the morning delicacy – Masa made from white rice and other ingredients I don’t know.
Katrina took us to a little piece of heaven she owns near the hills in a quiet, green village called Maza which, to my surprise, wasn’t drowned out by the sounds of honks, horns and numerous, faceless voices. She’d built a hut on the land and it was there I got to know that she has green hands. We ate breakfast there, basking in the unpolluted, cool breeze of spring and we talked and talked and talked some more. Katrina had beautiful plans for her land, even though she would soon be leaving. We left earlier that we would have wanted because I had a rehearsal to be at and, well, it was time to leave. Katrina dropped us all off at our stop points and we said goodbye and planned to meet again during the week before she left.
I had a lot of firsts that weekend. My first sleep over. My first massage. My first smoothie. My first pizza. My first timeout with girls. Contentment was the one feeling I identified with. Not happiness, not so much joy but contentment. I was contented enough to let things happen the way they were supposed to happen. I was contented to accept that it was time to leave. I was also contented to know that I wanted this to happen again but not too many times so that the feeling wouldn’t be ruined. I could just go on looking at them, thinking to myself, “What is going on through their minds right now? Do they feel what I feel? Isn’t it palpable?” The words are not enough to express myself and there is so much more I want to say, like all I know about this beautiful ladies and how good it was to just sit and listen to what they have to say. I have come to know true contentment and if this was because I left my comfort zone, then I am never going back there.
PS: If you were thinking the heading meant what I think you though, haha, it didn’t.
Posted by Wande Olanrewaju at 11:06 AM No comments: Links to this post Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest