Just because you need to... doesn't mean you have to...

Living slowly in my world is like saying you are poor and like being poor. Vacation and rest seem like gold owned by only the people who are wealthy. Whenever someone sees you relaxing just for a moment, it feels like you are wasting time when one should be working. This is why workers barely have time to rest while at work because resting isn't allowed.

The youths are lazy! Hearing such a statement wasn't the right way to push citizens who have been working their butts year in year out to get peanuts at the end of each day. But still, our ex-president said this with so much strength and insane confidence seeing he came from a rich home, his words hit the nerves of every youth that it was so sad to see how someone could speak ill of their struggles. Living in a country like Nigeria, sleeping isn't an option, especially living in Lagos. Both morning and night are the same as you see people hustling to get one of the basic amenities, which is food and water.

With the rise of things in the country, everyone wants to do everything they can to save money with no mind of losing sleep because of that. There's a word used when you ask an hustler what they are doing, it is called "Jamajama" which means doing everything knowing they have no one to back them up if they relax for the tiniest bit of time. And, sadly, even with all this work, things in the country get hard each day, which makes it harder to save for the future one hopes for.

When you look at this, it gets you thinking, things will always go up, and things will get hard. Besides, humans are not cats, which means one life is all it takes to achieve things and enjoy the world. But, if 100% of the time you use to work isn't even enough to achieve these things, why are you still working endlessly when one can just relax a bit to enjoy the world?

I have found myself in this shackle of working so hard just to make a difference but after carefully evaluating things, I realized that in doing lots of work, I was burning out a huge amount of energy which at the end of the day can't earn me something valuable to get in a year or years of working for it. This can be suffocating because there was hardly a rest, and taking a break was an insane thing to do.

However, seeing how history has taught us about the world, I have taken time to reevaluate things and rest even before my body demands for it. As long as I know I have done something productive for the day, I take a breath and relax. Also, going for vacation in different states has been top of my list and though I haven't been to a lot of places yet, I am thankful for the change in scenery of the places I have been to. The pleasure I get from just seeing a new place, different people is just superb!

The moment I started taking rest, I had time to reflect on things and think of a better way to do things better for the sake of my well-being. The fact that the country has given us that mentality that we need to work like a slave to get even the most basic thing like water doesn't mean we have to succumb to slavery. There's a better or more likely a simpler way to do things that won't require us burning so much energy and seeing taking breaks as being lazy.

Just because you need to work hard in life doesn't mean you have to work yourself to death. Taking a break matters, even if it is just a few minutes. Therefore, I present to you a song by Akon.

I hope you get to read a deep meaning to the lyrics of the song as you listen.

_{Images used are mine, and video was gotten from #YouTube.}

Still yours truly,
Balikis.

Thanks for reading and listening.

Peace be unto those who crave it and more to those who chase it away.