OWN THAT HILL

    A couple of years ago i went with my mum to see her mum in the village, we'd been there for 24 hours and i was already bored stiff. As i pondered on what to do, I remembered i had seen some hills on the way to grandma's house, so i was off on an adventure to see the hills and take pictures.

    On arrival, the hills were a lot bigger than what i had thought, as it occured to me to climb them i began to think of all that could go wrong, what if i slipped and fell, what if i get trapped up there with no way to get back down, what if at the top there would be a snake bla bla bla bla. Truly it was a daunting task i had ahead of me, nonetheless, i remember taking off my shoes, taking a deep breath, saying to myself "you can do this girl, but brace yourself". Finally I took the first step.


   Halfway up i had become frustrated, i was tired, i wanted to sit (could i get a bed?), i needed a drink, but there were no such options available. The soles of my feet were bruised, so were my fingers, my knees were skimmed and my entire body ached. Still i soldiered on, bravely enduring the discomfort.


   In the blink of an eye i was at the top, i layed down for a minute to catch my breath, but when i got up, looked around, let it all sink in, it was more than worth it, the view was breathtaking!!! The pain and discomfort was nothing compared to the feeling of being so high up, i literally felt high, the houses and people below all looked like ants, the air was fresher, the sun was brighter, i knew all i had to do was stretch my hand and touch the sky.

at the top of my hill

   I quickly got to work screaming, dancing and taking a thousand and one pictures and soaked it all in and then it was time to get down. What i hadnt even contemplated was how hard it would be to come down cos at that point i would no longer be in control, gravity's the boss. One slip and it would be a tumble downhill to broken bonesvile (looking back now, if i had thought about coming down i probably wouldn't have gone up in the first place) i said to myself  "hey girl this place is no longer good enough for you just take the first step again" I slipped a number of times but i held firm. And eventually made it.


    As i walked away from that hill i remember taking one last look and saying to the man who had come with me "can we get a bigger rock, a mountain perhaps?" He thought i was joking and just laughed it off. From that i learnt you can't always count on people to believe in you, you can even count on them to doubt . But truly i needed more of a challenge, i had conquered this one. this was no longer that daunting hill it was a stone I had walked on. I had owned that hill! All because i believed in myself and had taken that first step. I got back to my mum and she told me the two biggest rocks in the state (Olosunta and Oroole) she said the hardest to climb was Oroole and i quickly added 'to climb Oroole rock' to my bucket list.


    No matter the journey, the task, the challenge, the first step is always the hardest because it is filled with the greatest risk. But as Coldplay said "if you never try then you'll never know" The most succssful and most unforgettable people in the world are the daring ones, those who left their comfort zones and took the risks, faced what scared them and went all in. Sometimes with no safety net. The biggest risk Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, ever took was dropping out of Harvard to start Microsoft. How about the first man to fly a plane, the first man on the moon?


    Great things dont just happen, you have to make it happen. Go out, change your wardrobe, cut your hair, take dance or swimming lessons, start a conversation, launch your own business. Not happy with your job, get another one. i remember the interview i had with ID Cabasa(one of Nigeria's biggest music producers), he was a banker and a good one at that but he was not happy and so he quit and began producing . (Read the entire interview here http://debourgeois.blogspot.com/2012/07/id-cabasa-excellence-is-my-driving.html ). Now we all know his name...   Many times its when you have everything to lose that you must draw out from yourself the courage to proceed, that we tap into the greatness in us and gain everything.

    Sometimes the risk is not financial, its emotional, you watch the girl you are crazy about go on dates with other guys and you'd rather stay in the 'friendzone'? Speak up already, tell her how you feel, show up with flowers(i prefer chocolates but what do i know?), write her a poem, dedicate a song to her, embarass yourself  but just do something! I saw a movie where a father said to his son "all you need to get the girl is 20 seconds of courage", the boy goes for it and gets the girl. That's a movie, in real life you may not get the girl, but you'll know you tried, you'll never wonder what would have happened if you'd spoken up.

    So what, you're fourty years old and you want to go back to school to get your degree? The people who laugh at you now, will get over their foolishness in a little while. So fill the form. What's the worst that could happen?!

   Not happy with the way you look? lose some weight, register at a gym, start exercising, people will raise their eyebrows at the "fat" person running down the road, but none of that matters, once you take the first step, once you dare to face those that will mock you; you have my word, in the end, you will shock them and become a happier person.

   Never settle for less, when there is so much more you can be. Your potential has endless possibilities. I read that one of the ethics of life is that "before you quit . . . . try". Do whaterver it takes, write out your bucket list, start with something as litle as tasting a new meal (for me it was my neighbour's banga soup) to as drastic as moving to another state. As Eleanor Roosevelt said "Do one thing everyday that scares you". You will have to take that first step again and again and again.


    So I dare you to grow a pair, step up and own that hill.