Humans take risks almost on a daily basis. Life is just full of risks and no matter how hard we try, we can’t ever really avoid it. That’s just the sad truth of life that we have to live with. Hell, even the most mundane things in life come with risks. It’s not only when you step out of your house that you can get into dangerous situations. You can be in your bedroom and danger would come and meet you there.
It’s a crazy world, and anything can happen at any time. No one knows tomorrow. We don’t allow the risks to stop us from living our lives. Despite the danger of road travel and accidents, we still get into cars every day. Despite the fatality of plane crashes and how it has little to no survivors, people still travel on planes, and the list goes on. Despite all the risks involved, we still live our lives.
Although this doesn’t mean that we purposely put ourselves in danger all the time, we only do it every once in a while. I’m sure we all have had that period where we did something risky without really thinking about the consequences. It could be simply for the thrill, or it could be for a good reason. And other times, it could simply be because there was no time to think of something less foolish.
This last bit was where I fell in. In my life, I’ve done really crazy things; like using a bike on the expressway from the airport to my school. almost 45 minutes of intense speeding, if not more. I’ve gone out to the market during a period when unknown gunmen were rampant and it was wiser to stay indoors. And so much more.
However, this topic brought an event to my mind. It wasn’t as daring as the other two, but it was foolish enough that it could have ruined my life. It happened years ago, back in Lagos. We were celebrating Salah at one of my friend’s house. They were Muslims and the father had killed more than one ram, which meant that we had more than enough to go around.
And all was going well. You know how boys will be boys, we started playing. Nothing rough, just simple. Cracking jokes, while cracking bones and chewing meat, if you know what I mean. It was a great day and nothing could go wrong. Or so I thought.
Someone who was close to me asked for water and called the person closest to the cooler to get water. The thing is, the person was far away so crossing the distance would take time. And seeing as most of us were full from eating, none of us had much strength. So, he got the bright idea to throw it. It was the last sachet of water in the bag, so he took it out with the bag and threw it high into the air.
I didn’t think much, all I saw was that the guy threw it way too much and it was hurtling towards the gutter. Even now, I can hear the noise the nylon made as the wind beat mercilessly against it. Pure water was N5 then, I could have easily let it go, but like I said, there was no time to think of something less foolish.
So, I launched myself into the air, moving towards the gutter to intercept the bag. I put everything on the line, stretching myself and I managed to snag the nylon right out of the air by my fingertips. That was when I saw the gutter rushing at me at full speed! But somehow, I landed on the edge. It was a precarious landing that caused me to sway for a few seconds but I finally got my balance and then jumped down at once.
That was quite a feat and my friends cheered me, I was also smiling like an idiot. However, my friend’s mom (the one whose house we were in) saw everything and she was pissed. The way she scolded me ehn, I’m sure if I was her son she would have beat me shege that day. That jump I made was really risky and dangerous, if I had lost my footing, it would have been hellish. My head would have met the concrete, or my legs would have been seriously injured. Either way, the Salah that was a beautiful occasion for everyone would have been ruined simply because one kid decided to jump without thinking.
I learned my lesson and I saw just how foolish I had been. And that moment really helped me calm down. I had seen what being hot-blooded could do to a young boy like me and I had to force myself to calm down. So far, I’ve not made any such decisions again. I still take risks from time to time, as I mentioned at the start of this post, but now I make sure that before I leap I always get a good look first.
That’s very important.
