When I Was 10

Growing up was an amazing experience, i remember growing up in the beautiful city of Kano State, life was easy and everything was ......., am lost for words to describe my childhood, I would say it was indescribable, if you understand what I really mean. Don't mind me, am not writing to tell you how fancy my life was growing up, although it was fancy and fun, but I want to share with you a bit of that history and lessons to learn from.

I lived in this massive compound at 195a Hotoro Kwanar Maggi GRA, it has two duplex in it, one for my family and the other was occupied by the Kabirus, then the Mohammeds. The Mohammeds became not just neighbours but family, and that relationship remains till date. There were a lot of children in the compound because our BQs were given out to friends to live in, and they had families of their own. So I had more than 10 play buddies.

We played all sorts of games, hide and seek, 'oga' (sorry I don't know the name in English, it is played by clapping both hands and changing feet), in and out surrender, pretend families, race, bike racing, sand cooking and of course once in a while we fought and kept malice.

Apart from the children antics which was part of my upbringing, I watched a lot of TV. My dad sure knew how to engage I and my siblings. I had tones of fairy books, little wonder till date am a big fan of the Tinkerbell films. I watched every series and episodes of Tom and Jerry, Power Rangers, Sound of Music, all Disney cartoons from the likes of Sleeping Beauty to Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, name it, I watched them all. To make it interesting, dad joins us till the very last end.

Being 10 was amazing I didn't care about anyone, my routines were eat and sleep. I never had time for my looks or hair. Boyfriend? please give me a break i haven't attained puberty and boys for me was a no show. I love me just the way i was. All i wanted to do was play and watch cartoon and if I miss any of those I would cry my eyes out

Being 10 this days seems to be a daunting task to pull of, I once engaged a 10 year old in a conversation and she told she has a boy friend, in my head i was like okay, is he your friend because he is a boy (don't call me naive, I just don't jump into conclusion). She told me no " we love ourselves", I guess it was brotherly love, i didn't want to believe her (strangest things kids say). There are a lot of horrendous things 10 years old says and do this days. A little girl at the salon I was, wanted to to fix a weave-on that cost N35,000, when her request was denied, she threw tantrums at her mom and the stylist, at that point all I wanted to do was pick her up and flog hell out of her. For the 10 year old boys, its just the same thing.

As an adult, I wish things remained the same, I wished I didn't have to bother about career, schooling, relationships, marriage, bills and other bru ha ha that comes with growing up.  I just want to be daddy's little girl. Growing up was a big trap. If you have a youngster around you, teach them to enjoy their childhood, they are only young once and growing up is a whole lot of maniac.

 

What did you do when you were 10?