NIGERIA @ 62... (CONCERNS FOR HER CITIZENS )

 A LETTER TO HER CITIZENS!

If you find yourself reading this right now,I want to remind you to look up.

 Look up when you feel consumed. 

Look up when you’re just not sure what  tomorrow  will look like. Look up and wonder. Look up and gaze. 

Look up and think. Look up and admire. I’m writing this as a reminder to stay in bed all day if that’s what you need.

 A reminder to cry if you need to cry. Laugh when you feel like laughing. Laugh so hard it hurts. Laugh for all the times you felt like you couldn’t.

You see, mental illness lives. Anxiety lives. OCD lives. Addiction lives. Depression lives. Imagine millions of people around the universe waking up with the same dark, aching places you promised you’d never talk about. I’ve noticed how quick we are, as human beings, to push aside the most meaningful parts of our lives. So what if we created this discussion? This discussion based on real feelings. Real illness. Real people.

Let’s not push aside the things that need to be talked about. Let’s bring mental illness to the light. The worst thing we can do is ignore it. It exists and it easily consumes. So if you’re struggling right now, let someone help. Let someone in. Set up a counseling appointment. Go to therapy. Asking for help does not show weakness. When saying yes to counseling feels like a failure, please remember that you are more. You are more than the pain you feel. Recognize that your feelings are valid, but know that they do not have to control you. Getting help should be a celebration, and it should never be quiet.

You don’t know me. I don’t know you. But I can promise, it gets better. With everything that is chaotic and real in this life we’re living, I promise you…it gets better.

I really don’t know much. But I’ve come to believe a few things that I hold dearly to my heart. People make up this world. Race aside, gender aside, politics aside, opinions aside, we are called to love. We need one another and that’s okay. People need love. The overwhelming kind. The bending over backwards kind. The calling just to hear someone’s voice at 3a.m. kind. The vulnerable kind. It’s letting someone in when you thought you never could. It’s opening up in ways you swore to yourself you never would. It’s confusing and it’s never easy, but we need it.

This is me, a perfectly imperfect stranger, encouraging you to hold on. Writing because smiling all the time is exhausting. Writing because it’s okay to not be okay. Writing from me to you. Writing because it’s time. Time to be human. Time to accept that people need other people. Cry together, laugh together, value simplicity, discuss dreams and ambitions. Time to get in the car and drive for hours without a destination, with our favorite songs on repeat.

Drink so much water and do so much of whatever triggers your soul’s revival. Tell someone your biggest fears. Tell someone your biggest dreams. The ones that scare you. Paint, sing, dance, scream, run, read, write, immerse yourself in whatever lights even the smallest flame.

To anyone struggling right now, please hold on to hope. Please know it’s okay to talk about how you’re feeling. To the discouraged and disheartened, all you need to do is breathe. You are enough. I am too. Join me in speaking up about depression. Speaking up about addiction. Speaking up about coping mechanisms. Let’s get this conversation started.

Together, we can encourage one another. Let’s be cliché, and chase dreams, and have hope. So much hope. Jamie Tworkowski challenges us with, “Maybe wonder feeds hope and hope feeds wonder.”

So here’s to wondering. Here’s to feeling the fireworks. Here’s to second chances and putting life on pause. Here’s to dreaming of things that seem so impossible. Here’s to coffee at midnight and passion so wild it becomes terrifying. To new beginnings and holding on to life. 

There is a mountain that stands before each and every one of us. This mountain I speak of is figurative in nature, but represents everything that attempts to block our path to becoming all that we wish to become. The towering giant of opposition stands tall seemingly laughing at our squeamish attempts to scale it's treacherous walls. It could be fear, doubt or a situation that takes so much of your energy away that it feels impossible to make any progress. It could be a mistake from that past that you still may be paying for. It could be the lack of resources you need to make things happen. Maybe you fell on your face after trying for the 100th time to go for your dreams and now you feel like giving up. No matter what this mountain is to you, the fact still remains that it wishes to reroute your deepest desires, ultimately sending it to an abyss of deferred hope and the land of deceased dreams.  

In order to get anything worth having in life you must persevere. Success in any area of life will require tenacity and steadfastness. To scale the mountain in your pathway you must learn to weather the storm, navigate perfidious terrain and scale the wall of fear as if your life depended on it. Life is unpredictible at times and there are seasons when it feels like nothing will seem to be going right. You may question whether continuing is even worth it anymore. I’m encouraging you to push through. Those who find the courage to keep going when things get tough are the ones make things happen. Every morning we are faced a decision. Are we going to quit when the going get's tough or are we going to fight with everything within us to achieve all that which he hope to achieve. You can have any and everything you want in this life. It's just going to require something of you. If you get knocked down, get yourself up and go at it again. That's the staple of perseverance.

Keep your eyes fervently on your goals and your dreams. Let that become the fuel that propels you. The only thing that can truly stop you, is you. Every mountain can be scaled and conquered. The good Lord reminds us that we are all more than conquerors. That applies to every single one of us regardless of what we have done or failed at in the past. Mount Everest at one time was viewed as the mountain that was deemed impossible to climb. It claimed the lives of many who dared to face it but something incredible happened on Friday, May 29th 1953. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. What appeared to be impossible by many was made possible. It doesn't matter where you've been in life or what others have said about you. The only thing that matters is what you believe. You've got to know you can make things happen even in the odds don’t appear to be stacked in your favor. The mountain that lies in front of you doesn't stand a chance. Your best and most incredible life is on the other side of the towering giant. Today is the day you move foward in courage. It just takes one foot after the other. 

With so many years behind us no change has occurred in the course of celebrating our country NIGERIA! 

But @ 62, has to pay more attention to the mental health of her citizens! We Hope That sooner, we will get to celebrate NIGERIA  for lofty heights yet to be attained. 

WE HAVE ALL IT TAKES! 

MAKE THE CHANGE POSITIVE & CONSTANT! 

PROVIDE JOB OPPORTUNITIES! 

AND URGE THE SECURITY PERSONNEL TO LEAVE THE YOUTHS ALONE!

For what it is worth and for the LOVE OF COUNTRY,

WE CELEBRATE NIGERIA @ 62! HURRAY!

yours faithfully

Diamond Ugoh