Thoughts of a child. Innocent, basic, yet profound.

I wasn’t the kind of child that will stop in the middle of a game and gaze at the sky, transfixed by the wonders of an evening sky. No, I was the type that would notice the evening sky, but pay still attention to the game enough to win it, then at night, dream about the wonders of an evening sky.

When I was a child, I thought movies were real. So when an actor I loved dies in a movie, I cried, in the same manner, I would if he had actually died. I expect, that because they died, they won’t be in any movie for a couple of months until God decides to resurrect them. When I finally see that actor who had died acting a new movie, I rejoice in the same manner I would have rejoiced if they had actually resurrected from the dead.

When I was a child, I thought it was God who gives children. When a man and woman got married, I thought they would kneel down beside their bed every night and ask God for a child. One day, he would answer and they would have a child. Later on, when God deemed it fit that they should have another one or maybe when they had prayed hard enough, God would plant another baby in the woman’s womb.

That was why I prayed so hard whenever the pastor or the leader of the EFAC group in church raise a prayer for those seeking for the fruit of the womb. I prayed so earnestly to the God who gives children. I begged him every time to finally answer the prayers of those couples and give them kids as lovely as I was.

Imagine my surprise when my mum called amaria (a newly-wedded woman) who already had four kids just three years after marriage and was advising amaria to go easy on how frequent she had kids, and matter of fact, to quit having kids. What???? Weren’t children gifts from God? Can a man ask God to quite blessing him with his wonder-marvelous gifts? I asked my mum why she gave that kind of advice. Looking back, I’m don’t blame her for being short of words to explain the facts to me. I was just about five years old. Maybe less.

When I was a child, I thought to go to school was synonymous with being educated. I thought the best jobs were reserved for the most brilliant students. So I never worried about the future, I thought if I do excellently in JAMB, I’d be offered admission to one of the best universities in the country. Then I’d get a job later and, as the first child of the family, use my salary to take care of myself and the family. Then get married when I turn 30.

When I was younger, I thought highly of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics. They were the subject of the smart students. Only dumb students ran away from them. I use to think that if I were brilliant enough, I would study medicine. But then, I couldn’t hold myself long enough to finish a dissection in a Biology Practical, I got the glimpse of reality.

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”