I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds the phrase “Happiness is free” annoying. I mean how can happiness be free and sometimes I can’t seem to find it when I need it. Think of this; Oxygen is free. So, even when I’m sad or depressed and want to give up on life, oxygen is still there. I strongly believe that is how happiness should behave if it is truly free.
Yesterday was one of those days that I really wished there was a shop for happiness. I got to work very late for the 3rd time this week even though I left home (ikorodu) by 5 am for work. Getting to work at 10 am from Ikorodu to Lekki was one stress on its own. Having my supervisor yell at me and eventually reporting me to HR made the entire day even more hectic.
Anyways, ₦5k was ducked from my pay this month. Fingers crossed, I’ll only be short of ₦5k on my salary for November if traffic from home to work favors me.
On my way home, I still wasn’t so fortunate because I had to stand from Marina to Agric after purchasing a sitting ticket (typical BRT wahala). On my standing trip, I had time to look at everyone on the bus. They all looked really stressed and although you could see depression on some of their faces, there was this woman that caught my eye.
I could tell that she had a bad day and maybe one even worse than mine. I mean she received several calls and from those calls, I was able to deduce that her child was ill, she was in some sort of debt and she was really looking forward to going back to her family somewhere farther than I lived in Ikorodu. All through this journey, she kept smiling and even lent her laps to a kid whose mother could not lap both her kids on the bus. When we got close to Ketu, this woman who I was sure was in so much debt, ordered the typical Lagos trip food- Gala and A cold bottle of Teem.
All this time I spent not minding my business made me understand what Nigerians truly meant by “Try dey enjoy small, problem no dey finish”
So, I learnt four ways of tricking myself into being happy from this man who had worse problems than myself:
- Smile: For some reason, this can make others smile. But it may make some people wonder if you are mad but you must focus on the positive.
- Give: It can be anything. Your lap for some child on the bus, a text to that friend who crosses your mind often, a call to your parents or a hamper for your partner.
- Family is everything: It might be a day out, a movie night or even the regular night chit chats at home. As long as you spend it with your loved ones, the memories give you some sort of comfort when you encounter bad days.
- Get yourself something nice once in a while: Like I said earlier, “Try dey enjoy, problem no dey finish”
