I Almost Dropped A Tear

The Words

When I saw the movie, The Words over a year ago, I could relate to the feeling which one gets when they lost a story they had written. For one, one would never be able to get the words back in the original form, one could try but it will never be the same especially when the story runs over pages. However, I'd never really experienced such before. It's not like I'd always been careful, but luck just never played against me.

Four days ago my phone was stolen, and that was my saddest day for this year. I wasn't pained because of the phone itself, but the information it had on it. To be honest, I could part with the phone save for my documents on the phone. There were tons of pictures, half-written articles, notes, web documents and other documents on the phone. To sum it up, the phone was priceless.

Half of my documents weren't exactly expendables, but I'm someone who easily cut my loses and move on. However, all along, it didn't daunt on me that I'd two almost finished true stories on the phone. I realized that 45 minutes ago, and I almost drop a tear because I'm definite I'll never get the stories back in their perfect form. And It's probable I'll never write them again.

I learned two lessons at the end;

1). What is worth doing is worth doing on time: I've almost completed the two stories that almost took a tear from my eye since last year, but I kept stalling and stalling till I finally lost them. Had it been, I completed them before my phone got stolen, they would be online right now.

2). Back-up is necessary: It's good to always keep other copies somewhere else because anything can happen at anytime.

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Seeing Is Not Always Believing; We See Wrongly

I can't remember how many times I must have used, 'seeing is believing'. In fact, I hear or see this cliché in a conversation/text almost every week. Of course, seeing is believing. But, if we examine this phrase in relation with some real life circumstances, we would see that seeing is not always believing. Digressing, the previous sentence would further butress the law that,"nothing is 100% guaranteed". The human visual organ is so strong that it can affect other senses negatively. That is the visual organ is capable of over-clouding the judgement of other sense organs.

1). Some weeks ago in Ibadan, Nigeria, a particular fish-seller set off an alarm after unpacking the carton of frozen fishes she had brought home. After unpacking the carton she saw a strange creature among the fishes, which she labelled a mermaid. She rushed to call people who could help, and most of them confirmed that it was a mermaid. Everyone who believed had all sorts of theories regarding the creature, and at some point it was all over the place that the mermaid talked after being worked on by "Osun worshippers." However, at the end of it all what some people thought they saw was just a misconception because the supposed mermaid was actually an octopus.

2). Few months ago in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, a particular student gave birth in the Moremi hostel hall toilet and wanted to flush the baby down the drain. So, we heard at first, but when it all went down, it was gathered that few people that was part of the party that first saw(or heard) her, saw(or heard) a scene that seemed that way. Blood all over the toilet, a baby in the toilet, and a lady  by the toilet, what else did people that always see the negative side needed? 
However, later on we found out that she wasn't trying to kill the baby, it was the other way round. And the reason the baby was in the toilet was because she was defecating due to running stomach and was not expecting the baby at all. Now, I can't be too sure what really happened, but at least this clearly shows different people seeing different scenario to a situation.

-I would love to write back-up stories(funny and stern) about the above stories but I'm trying to be objective here.

Now, let's take a look at two illusions:

1). Below is a video of an illusion called the Mcgruck effect, showing how what we see can influence what we are actually hearing.

2). Below is an image which appears to be moving but in actual fact it is not. It is arranged in such away to appear like that.



The point is you can't always be too sure of what you see, because what you see might just be a creation of your mind(not exactly). And the same goes for hearing, because you heard something does not mean you heard right.

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Re: Sleep Paralysis - My Experience, Possible Causes and Solution

So, I posted my last post before this one on the Health Board of OneGist Community Forum. In which one of the popular users of the forum, Hennyade responded to the thread citing the story of his cousin. 
Below is Hennyade's reply and my response to his reply on the 13th of July.

 Hennyade -

I fear this been a personal encounter from bj, but if it's, u already know your way out, prayer can permanently stop this, i like how the writer reacts towards  the SP which makes some heart sink. Actually I never had it or probably am not noticing it, but that's a cousin greatest fear and it seems, the SP weighs heavier in some species, also hereditary by some genes, actually i cant conclude maybe it spiritual or not as am never a victim, but my cousin's SP occurs more frequently than the experience, like thrice a week or more, not sleeping properly is not a factor.
I guess it might be spiritual as the narrated experience states that if u fear it so much, it might occur more frequent, so the best explanation for something that happens when you got terrified by it is being spiritual. And when my cousin's got to a consideration point by her and her parent, they seek help spiritually and it never happens since, i mean again. Yours might be normal, but hers is out of ordinary, dangerous nightmares attached.

My Response -

Henny, I'm afraid it's my experience. It's no doubt that prayer can cure SP permanently(spiritual or no spiritual). Like I stated above, "the effect of faith and believe". However I'm 80% sure your cousin's SP is not spiritual. Not sleeping properly is just the main factor but not necessarily the cause for a particular individual. Although, not sleeping properly doesn't have to be sleeping less, "but do you really sleep", "do you sleep because you must sleep or because you are feeling sleepy", "do you linger on thoughts every time when you ought to be sleeping" and so on like that....?

Now, to your cousin and what you think probably caused her own; From here to the United States, several evil stories have always been passed across to people. These stories and also some of our personal experiences stay on our mind. One could really see what these things could do to us when we were young when mere thinking of what you saw on TV before going to bed or what you heard could keep you awake, or  really scared to walk in dark places.

From the way I see it, your cousin is the 'fear' type. And the fact is, there is high tendency of having another SP after your first time. This is simply because most of us accept 'intuitive' answers for what we can't explain. So, we settle for spiritual causes. Hence, the series of nightmares. . .

She wants to sleep and she'd be like,"These demons are they not going to come for me tonight again?".

Unknown to her she's setting off more anxiety thereby increasing her problem. But her problem would have been easily dealt with if she  was a little bit 'analytical' about it. But I doubt she knew there was a scientific explanation to it and she wasn't really alone on a wider base.

I know you would say "why was she cured by a pastor then?": The simple theory to that is this, since some people don't believe in their personal prayers maybe 'cause they engage in so many things that are contrary to the will of God or they believe they are not strong spiritually or whatever. Also, faith is more stronger with proof. You'd agree that 'seeing is believing'. So, a Sleep Paralysis patient can be easily cured if a Pastor that has done 'real' miracles perform deliverance on them. The miracles the pastor has on his records are the proofs which will help kill the doubts on the patient's mind.

However, prayer is not for spiritual things alone, if you don't want something(not spiritual) in your life and you believe in God why not pray against such things?


BTW, hope you know that if something not venomous bit one, and one think it was a venomous snake. The effect one believe a poisonous snake should generate in one's body would manifest. . . Bro, delusion kills faster. . . 

Sleep Paralysis - My Experience, Possible Causes and Solution

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Sleep Paralysis - My Experience, Possible Causes and Solution

This may appear kind of clustered and not going straight to the point. But I just want you to see one thing or the other(maybe a pattern) to relate with which may also help. However, if you just want to see the possible causes and solutions scroll down towards the end of this post.

Introduction

I can't really recall how many sessions or different versions of sleep paralysis I've had over the years. But what I can remember is I took notice of SP when I was an eight grader. It happened that we were having the Yoruba Subject and my teacher was discussing about unnatural occurrences. At a point she talked about Sleep Paralysis. Although I didn't know it as Sleep Paralysis then and I doubt my teacher knew it also. She explained everything in Yoruba language and of course she attributed the occurrence of Sleep Paralysis to evil presence. She told us the Yoruba people refer to Sleep Paralysis as 'Oririn' meaning 'presser'. She expatiated telling us it wasn't good to experience SP, and one should be very prayerful to avoid it 'cause it is one of the ways the devil gain access to one's life. With the way she stressed on SP among other unnatural occurrences she talked about, I knew she must have experienced SP at some point in her life. Several days after the lecture, I had sleep paralysis but it probably started before then, maybe I just didn't pay attention. After, my last SP, I didn't have any again until few years later.

Now, you might ask, "why evil presence?" Well, few years later the first SP I noticed, I started having SP(without hallucinations) frequently and I needed answers. I went on the internet to get answers that 'suit' me and more than 70% of the responses(intuitive thinkers) on the internet associated SP with evil presence. The same answer I was already provided with by my immediate environment. The summary goes thus; the believe that some dark forces terrorize humans in their sleeps have always been passed across from one generation and culture to another. Since virtually every culture believes this, 'Sleep Paralysis fits in perfectly as it rarely occurs without living a feeling of terror on its victims.

What is Sleep Paralysis?

Basically Sleep Paralysis is when you feel you are awake but you can't move nor talk. The feeling may be scary as it is sometimes experienced with hallucinations. You see things that are not really present and hear things that are just creations of your imagination. A person may experience this phenomenon just once, occasionally, frequently and or even several times in a night in their lifetime. Sleep paralysis can occur in different cases either while trying to sleep or awakening from a sleep. Even though SP has been found to be harmless but nevertheless has been linked to other disorders including but not limited to narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea.

To learn more about what scientists and researchers have to say about the back-end causes of Sleep Paralysis, you can search online for some of the articles created for SP.

Having talked to several people and did some internal and external digging about SP, I can rightly say that 5 out of 10 people have experienced SP at a point in their lives. Although, due to personal discretion and cultural believes some people may deny that it ever occurred to them.

My Experience and Explanation to Sleep Paralysis

To begin with, SP occur when you are about sleeping, and your mind and your body are not in the same phase. That is your body is already asleep but your mind is not, your brain is in a kind of active and at the same time inactive state. And your consciousness find a way to get a message from your subconsciousness. Now, that's where the problem arises, once your consciousness gain the awareness it becomes somewhat active but not necessarily active. Then, the panic sets in as you were sleeping earlier and your brain has already shut down the movement of your muscles to avoid you acting out your dreams. Or when you are waking up and your mind is already awake but your brain is slow in relaying the information to the necessary area to turn your muscles back on. Read on for further explanations.

I pointed earlier that I've had series of Sleep Paralysis and when it got to a point, I felt it was becoming too much. My definition of too much might be different from yours but having sleep paralysis more than 6 times in a month sometimes multiple SP successively at a particular night was tiresome to me. I needed answers not 'cause I was scared of some evil presence as that really didn't make enough sense to me. And please don't get me wrong, I'm not disputing any fact about the possibility of SP being caused by something mystical but in my opinion that would be one in a thousand. I was getting tired of it 'cause I felt I might be nearing my own death. Since I'd a feeling it was the brain malfunctioning, I thought I could be suffering from a really dangerous disorder and sooner than later my brain could shut down movement of my body permanently rendering me paralyzed.

I started reading about SP, and I started getting a little bit relieved even though a lot of people attributed SP to an evil presence(religious and cultural believes). However, evil presence or no evil presence knowing it occurs in more than few people got me relieved. Then I started talking about it to people around me which I found out most of them have experienced it at some point in their lives. But I'm a very inquisitive person and I really needed to know what triggers my series of SP. Having studied about it, I learnt it is mostly due to sleeping habits and stress. Exactly, then I knew where my problem was from, I'd a very bad sleeping habit. I barely slept for 4 hours in a day around the time I started having it recurringly but the time I noticed I didn't have it or just once in a blue moon I was sleeping better compared to my less than 4  hours sleep.

My Sleeping Habit -  By the time I was 13 I was already an heavy gamer. I played games with most of my days and nights and times without number I proceeded to school the next morning without sleeping at all. I only rest and have a good proper sleep when I was done with a game and sometimes before continuing with another game, I indulged in movies too.

Later, when I became 14(10th grade), most of my time was spent on chatting online. Then I stumbled on some webmaster page, I got really interested since I'd always wanted to be a programmer(game developer) and that was related to it. Then, I spent the rest of the year on reading source codes, HTML and some web fundamentals. Of course I paid off with my night sleep, and I even started setting alarms to 2am in the morning till I didn't need the alarm anymore to wake up by 2am.

Later I stopped to focus more on my school studies which went on for my two last years in High school.

Afterwards, I left high school and everything came crashing together as I wanted to have a piece of all my interests; video games, movies, coding, social networking, reading(for pleasure,knowledge, and for pre-university exams) and so on and so forth. This left me with very little time to sleep plus a very unbalanced and irregular sleep pattern. Almost everyday I woke up more than once in the middle of the night to continue with whatever I was doing earlier and sometimes I just took 5 minutes naps.

My Sleep Paralysis - Most of the SP I experienced were not coupled with hallucinations(choking, being held down, seeing demons etc). They were just plain SP, aware you are awake but you can't just move and when I felt a presence someone was actually there but unaware of my woes. They were plain because of my believe; I didn't believe my SP was caused by evil presence but thought it was a disastrous medical disorder. However, later I had few hallucinations when I started hearing out others' stories.

Like twice or thrice I saw a kind of something I can't describe not pinning me down but hindering me to wake. But that was just my imagination at work exploiting the vivid pictures of the devil I painted in mind for the others' stories and also fears I probably had but not really aware of.

Also twice in one week few years ago I had one which was like dreaming in your dreams(I've experienced it) but this time not like a dream as I knew it was SP(with hallucinations). I would force my self out of SP, on hearing my elder sister(her room was opposite mine) was calling me for early morning devotion. Afterwards, I would walk to my door to go join her and the others, then I would notice something(the real me was still in bed, meaning I was still paralyzed) was wrong. . . till I finally woke up - This happened very much later when I wasn't really having frequent SP like before. And it was due to the fact that I started paying attention to a lot happening around me, I was configured not to sleep deep. And just like almost every human being I can actually tell the estimate of the time whenever I wake up probably cause our subconsciousness are aware of certain things that happen during specific times. That week I was actually waking up around to 6 or after 6 in the morning, the time we normally have our morning devotion. So, due to panics I've always had that someone could be hitting me to wake up while in SP, automatically my brain with my imagination projected my sister to my door like she was already at my door as she normally did and I was seeing her which I wasn't in actual fact and in other not to set an alarm I thought I had forced myself to wake.

My Sleeping Habit in relation with My SP - Some of my SP were as a result of stress; I've used up myself during the day doing a whole lot of things, rigorous exercises and work, and things that left me with little hours of sleep rendering me mentally unbalanced. - This could bring about a lag between my brain and body.

Also I've a very irregular sleep pattern; For a week my sleeping time could be 2 in the morning, another 5. It could even be different hours in different days of a particular week. So, was my waking hours which probably lead to my brain mixing things up together and generating SP.

Too much of mind control; Sometimes I was tired, but had something I must finish up but instead of living it till tomorrow or when I'd gotten enough sleep rest. I wouldn't but would either take a 5mins nap or mistakenly fell asleep. Now, that's a problem my body was weak but my subconscious was aware that I was not ready to sleep, it passes a message to part of me somehow and SP would set in as my body was already shut down for sleep.

Sometimes I force myself to sleep; When I really have nothing to do, I always like to sleep and sleep to cover for some of the sleep I've missed even when I wasn't feeling sleepy. Since I was using my mind to trick my body, my body goes down first and my mind follows but since the mind is never really down. Now, If something went wrong somewhere and I became almost fully aware of myself again when my body was down already and still not coming back then SP.

However, when I was sleeping healthily, I had little or no SP at all.

What I think

Sleep Paralysis is mostly a thing of the mind, it exploit your fears, with the help of your picture memory and vivid imaginations. This is really easy as you are in a kind of trance and not necessarily in control of yourself. And due to this whatever fear you have before that are in your memory somewhere or believes you have relating to it sets in once you are in SP. Basically it's not SP itself doing this but just your own mind playing tricks on you. All those years I didn't believe evil as a cause of SP and I never had hallucinations(at least not a bogus hallucination) but once I started listening, and reading others' stories I started hallucinating
until I purged the fears out again. One important thing you should know is most of the time you think you are actually opening your eyes and you are able to close it, it's only very few times you actually did. Most times you are just in another half dream/half reality. What you are actually seeing is what you already have stored in your brain i.e what you should see if nothing was wrong.

You may ask "how are you sure of this?" You know at a point I started paying attention to dreams, and it got to a point I could actually tell in my own dream that I was dreaming just by finding what wasn't right in the dream. I used this with Sleep Paralysis, and most time a lot were just missing; Whenever I broke myself free I try to remember what I could see and there was always something that was in the presence but was missing during my session, and also sounds that were just wrong. And sometimes I could even see the room during SP which in actual fact the room was already light out.

To add more to the above, one of the days I was writing this, I needed to feel SP again having not experienced it for several months. And of course I was able to trigger it up. What I'm saying is if you think too much about SP, or believe you are going to get into another session the next time you sleep, you are likely to have it. However, by killing off your fears, anxiety and living like there's nothing put you one step ahead in getting yourself off SP permanently. Just try to find out what triggers your SP and work around that and put something in mind the more you believe in supernatural stories relating to SP, the more you increase your chance of having highly distressed SP as was my case.


Possible Causes of Sleep Paralysis

- Stress

- irregular Sleep Patterns

- Forcing yourself to sleep or Forcing yourself to stay awake

- Others include genetic factor, use of stimulants etc.

The best way to prevent SP is by maintaining a very healthy sleep pattern, avoid sleep deprivation and other things you think are factors of SP. And be hopeful.


Breaking Out From A Sleep Paralysis


- Relax, calm down - Whenever you feel you are in SP, just relax don't panic. Sometimes, when I've SP, I just behave like it's nothing, since it's just another SP and just go like I want to get a sleep. And right about that time I just pop out of it, boom, just like that.

- The effect of faith and belief - Just like I've been saying about you believing it's not coming and nothing is wrong. Believing in an higher power also helps. Even though I know my SPs was not from unnatural occurrences but this still works perfectly for me like number 1. Normally, whenever I've a bad dream(fake or real), I just pray over it and believe everything is alright. So, whenever I'm having a very bad SP, I just do few seconds prayer, although having deep faith in it and I'm out. So, no matter what you believe in, God and if yours is stone, plastic or whatever just channel it/him/her/etc.

- Never fight it - Trying to fight Sleep Paralysis is the surest way of draining off your energy. When you are having SP especially the ones with bogus hallucinations by fighting it you tend to become more anxious which makes it difficult to get out of SP. Fighting in a one minute SP, one could notice traces of breathlessness when out. Now, if you fight it for more than five minutes, you'll end up weakening yourself 'cause you waste a lot of energy by trying to fight all those imaginary demons in which you'd get the feeling of what you think choking and struggling would do to you on a normal ground for that duration.

- Force a word out - Although, I said earlier, that SP is just a half reality half dream state. However, if you channel all your energy at making a sentence or word, you'd be out. You have to do more than try while doing else all you might be saying might just end up in your mind and not really out as your body is down already. But once the word or sentence is out you'd be free, just something real to get you connected with reality.

- Hope, for someone to call you in the real word or shake you to wake - From my experience if someone calls you out or hit you during a Sleep Paralysis session you'd be out.

- Try to move a part of your body - From other people's experience and my personal experience by trying to move a finger, toe or some part continuously you could break yourself. However, the moving might not necessarily be real.

- Also some people say sleeping with one's back could bring about it - Well, I think the simple explanation to that is; sleeping with your back to the bed makes you less deep sleep than sleeping with your sides. However, I've had SP on almost all sleeping positions.

NOTE: Anytime you just broke off from SP, never go back to sleep immediately. You could sit up, try to do something else other than sleep for few minutes, or just switch your sleeping position else you have a very high chance of going back into another SP. This has happened to me several times, I went in > got out > slept back immediately > went in again > got out > slept immediately > went in again until I do something else for few minutes. e.g. I could just pick up my phone and check some things to take my mind off.



Last Advice: I'm not disputing off unnatural causes as a factor as I believe that, 'the law that nothing is 100% assured is applicable to all things including SP'. Just live healthy, sleep healthy, and don't think of SP too much and you would be free in no time. And remember the more you read about others' stories of SP, the more you worsen your SP. Hence, the reason I didn't include my different encounters of SP (scary as fuck).

Re: Sleep Paralysis - My Experience, Possible Causes and Solution

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Hell: A Place Called Home

Iyiola Ayobami Dafe(@ayo_dafe)

I must confess that as the son of an Apostle I don’t read the bible like I should, but one thing I learnt over the years by virtue of my ‘growing-up’ in a very religious family is the FULL DETAILS of HELL.

Hell; like a popular joke, which divides Hell into British Hell, American Hell, German Hell and Nigerian Hell describes Nigerian Hell as a cell where there’s no regular power (to electrocute) and the contractor given the contract to supply the nails and rods and other equipment of torture didn’t supply the equipment though he was fully paid for them. This makes the Nigerian Hell a paradise in Hell.

So also, Hell according to a Biblical school is divided into various parts. If you are one that ‘binds’, ‘spit’ and ‘stamp’ your foot on Devil  every time with your prayers (especially in the middle of the night), your place is in the hottest and most terrible part of Hell fire (that’s if by one reason or the other you don’t go to Heaven). The other parts of Hell have a more liberal treatment since the people there didn’t give Devil so many wahala.

Oh this isn’t a religious piece (if it is my writer-Apostle Dad will be in a better position to do justice to it) but it’s about the Hell called Nigeria. The Hell Nigeria is divided into stages or levels. Yes we all should know something about the widening gap between the rich and the poor which according to the common saying ‘the rich (are) getting richer and the poor getting poorer’. Who are the rich who ‘bind’ ‘spit’ and ‘stamp’ there foot on the Devil? (permit my usage of the word ‘Devil’ instead of the ‘masses’) are they not the corrupt insensitive politicians cum business men who live on bribes and seek power to control and monopolize the economy and their godfathers, cabals and barons with ill gotten wealth all at the expense of the masses? They are the one who splash muddy water with the fat tyres of their big tinted SUVs; they are the people that control everything from the stipends we call salary (they get big salaries and still loot more) to the number of times we eat in a day.

You ask how they control how many times we eat. They do when they don’t pay our pensioners after working tirelessly for the country in their younger days and when they lay off civil servants in thousands (the ministry of Internal Affairs laid off thousands of workers last year without paying them a single kobo up till now) are they not controlling how many meals we eat in a day? Are they not stamping there foot on us? When they don’t offer the millions of jobless undergraduates a source of livelihood are they not ‘spitting’ on us? When we don’t have constant electricity and other basic amenities like health care and good water are they not ‘binding’ us in servitude and oppression in our own country?

The Nigerian state doesn’t need a soothsayer to tell us that we are in Hell. Yes it’s Hell. The leaders over the years have failed us, they have crushed our expectations, and they all were after looting of the State’s resources for their families and cronies. We don’t need a ‘maga’ who has learnt to be smart via experience to tell us it’s a SCAM our leaders are pulling on us. Let’s take power generation for example, over 500billion was spent between 1999 and 2007 and the current federal government has spent a lot on failed promises too. So also the unfathomable reason why we still on ‘subsidy’ and importation of fuel to a country producing crude oil when the building of refineries shouldn’t be the big problem we have at the moment.

We don’t need a SS 1 student of Economics to tell us that for the economy to grow there should be constant electricity, a great infrastructure drive and Security/peaceful co-existence to attract foreign investment and to enable our indigenous companies to grow and even export to neighbouring countries. When we create a conducive business environment, Nigeria will be a top destination for foreign investment because the ‘oyinbos’ know that all they have to do is sell a product to five million Nigerians daily making 5naira profit per head thereby providing employment for over 60% of the youths which would take this youths off the street of crime (even the Boko haram menace) and Nigeria will be more like heaven for the citizens and a gold-mine for businesses. Only when Nigeria is Heaven can we have a reduction in the ‘devils’ of jobless youths that take to crime and who are making the country into a security topic for the world to debate upon. But all this won’t happen without the right environment which we Nigerians are entitled to in our Constitution (chapter 2).

Another stage of Hell in us is the urge for revolution, the masses that dislike our leaders (some will prefer to use ‘hate’). But why won’t they? When they are stamped upon and spat on by the government who is doing nothing to alleviate the sufferings of the masses. This brings out the beast in us, the urge to either want to suffer-smile or the urge to join them and join their ways (like the corrupt contractor in the Nigerian hell), we want to join their ranks and take a slice of the national cake, we want to lord and we end up forgetting where we coming from.

Are we different from our leaders? Take heed everyone, the REAL HELL awaits. Now I have not said anything new and this won’t be the last on this issue but I believe the change Nigeria needs start with YOU .In the ‘remixed’ version of the words of Mother Theresa- if each and every one of us sweeps the front of our door step the whole country will be clean. We should also keep in mind the words of Winston Churchill- ‘if you going through hell, keep going’ and the song by Ron Kenoly ‘…if u are going through hell don’t stop. Just go-ahead….’ That’s the hope we have to take us through this hell because this hell is a place called home (for now).

Oh Nigeria Hell, our Paradise.

SOURCE: www.onegist.com

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The Birthday Beating Tradition

Bang! Bang!! Bang!!! Bang!!!! Bang!!!!! *Knocks*
He Rolled on bed and he thought to himself; "who is this knocking at the door at this early hour of the morning?"

Bang! Bang!! Bang!!! *Knocks continues*
He thought again in his mind loudly, still feigning sleep. "Oh my God who is this on this early Saturday morning, aren't they supposed to be sleeping?"

*Coughs* his roommate clears throat, and continue sleeping.

Bang! Bang!!
His roommate finally talked, "Who's at the door?"

A female voice answered, "I'm the one" stating her name.

 He recognized her voice as 'Pamela' before she even stated it."Please let me in". Pamela was a friend occupying the fifth room to their right.

His roommate said, "No, I can't let you in. You are trying to set me up, who is there with you?"

At first it didn't occur to him what was happening, he thought; why would he say she wanted to set him up? Then all of a sudden he came to the realization that the day was his roommate's birthday, June first. No wonder he was hesitant answering the knocks.

In case you are wondering, why the birthday boy think he was being set up. Well, some people feel since every human being must cry when they were born to this world as a baby. So, it's only normal for anyone celebrating their birthday to repeat the crying on their birthday. Since crying at birth is not always voluntary, as small babies sometimes are being hit with ruler, or a finger lightly to give out a cry. They in turn do the same by inducing crying in older human being by beating them to stupor. This is common in colleges and high schools.

After several persuasion from Pamela, he finally let her in and true to her words she wasn't setting him up. Immediately she got in, he locked the door.

She wished him happy birthday! She was indeed the first person that wished him happy birthday physically. While Pamela and the birthday boy was chattering away, making pleasantries, James started wondering what would happen to his roommate on his birthday.

He thought,"these guys never missed "The Birthday Beating Tradition". Even though he might not have been present in all but he witnessed the beating that took place two years ago. The beating wasn't really brutal, but his roommate was the ring leader. So, there was no escape for him today, that he was sure of.

Bang! Bang!!
"Pamela someone wants to see you outside", shouted, Jane.

Jane is also a student, and a friend that stayed in the same hostel with them.

The birthday boy said, "don't answer her it's a lie".

Pamela said, "why would she be lying?"

The birthday boy answered, " 'cause she's done that before".

Now, Pamela is confused she didn't know who to believe. "Who's looking for me?" She said.

"The girl that usually visits you, the one in your department, always with an 'Ijab'." Jane answered like she was in a hurry.

For a minute James believed Jane, but then he realized it was all a lie. It made perfect sense, Jane was believable, no one would doubt her and that was why they were using her. But Pamela was convinced she was telling the truth. She asked them to open the door to let her out.

The birthday boy said "No, I know Jane is lying, I'm sure of that".

But Jane wanted to leave and since she wasn't a hostage they'd to let her leave. However, like every human, even though you know something is not right but there is always that doubt,

"What if Pamela wasn't lying?" James thought of that and so did the birthday boy.

Pamela was about opening the door to leave for her room, when the birthday boy shouted, "wait! Wait!! Wait!!! Pamela before you open the door, let me hide in the bathroom. James once she's out, just shut the door immediately."

He rushed to the wardrobe, got dressed and was in the bathroom in a blink of an eye. All along, Pamela was smiling like someone who didn't believe and thought all the birthday boy was doing wasn't necessary.
She opened the door, and was out. James stood by to lock the door after her, but what he saw next was a huge surprise which he would never forget in his life. Of course Jane was lying. . .

PART 2: The Birthday Beating Tradition

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