How Entitlement Almost Killed Me

Let me start by telling you that July has been a terrific month for me. From the launch of my podcast to gadgets giving me a hard time, and much more, however, I have still somehow managed to not disappoint my #BeforeNowPodcastFam a.k.a #BNPFam. With four episodes out now and a steadily growing audience, let’s just say that I am doing well. *winks*

If you’re reading me for the first time, welcome to MiCi’s Monthly Medium Post. Every month, I put out a non-fiction piece, and with the amount of love I’ve received lately, writing to publish on Medium is gradually becoming one of my favorite things to look forward to.

Ehen, so, it was my 27th birthday on the 9th of July and I had such a fantastic time. Honestly, I had no expectations so, there were no disappointments. That’s right!

Anyways, a long time ago, I learned from my grandfather that there is no sense in being entitled to other people’s money or resources. And, for the longest of time, I have consciously and intentionally refused to be entitled to anybody’s money, life, time, space, attention, etc.

Well, except you’re the one I’m planning to spend the rest of my life with, biko, please, s’il te plaît, give me your space, time, attention, and yunno, your money and my money is eventually going to be our money. Yes, baby!

Anyways, despite knowing the dangers of entitlement and avoiding them, I found myself in a dilemma where my life almost flashed before my eyes just because of…E-N-T-I-T-L-E-M-E-N-T!

I tell you!

Actually ehn, I had plans to publish something else for July but when this happened, I ditched that one and decide to share this piece with y’all. Maybe I’d publish that next month, yunno, God willing!

So, what happened? What’s this whole entitlement talk, uhn?

Here you go!

A few days towards the end of July, I was heading to the cinema to see Tunde Kelani’s Ayinla (seeing the movie and reviewing it was part of my community service in a book club that I had recently been suspended from for inactivity).

So, I flagged down a bike, hopped on it and vroooommm, we were on our way to the cinema. Not long after the ride started, my bike man's phone started ringing, and like feeem (film), the man halted the bike in the middle of the road immediately.

I was initially scared because I thought something went wrong with the bike and then, we had other vehicles closing in on us, but before I could say “oga, wetin happen?” he took his phone out of his pocket and started talking.

I was stunned!

Like??? W-T-F!!!

This man actually endangered my life (and his, of course) because he had to pick a call. Waawuuu.

The sound of cars honking as they tried to maneuver their way from behind us was irking me, and all of these happened in just a few minutes.

Omooooooo!

He returned the phone to his pocket and rode along as though nothing happened, boy! I was in shock.

And, then came the blabbing.

First, he said “sister no vex” to which I was still in so much disbelief to answer.

Then, he proceeded, “you see all these rich people ehn” he went on, “sister, rich people dey stingy o, them no dey fit give small money.” Issokayyy!

At the end of his talk, I was able to deduce that the person that called was a “rich person” he had been trying to reach who wasn’t taking his calls and if he had missed the call, the person would have given him another excuse that he (the biker) did not answer when the rich man called. (inserts PawPaw’s Eweeee clip).

As I was processing the information, he kept going about how much the rich man is worth, the things he has, and how he was only asking for a tiny bit of that wealth that the rich man would not even notice was gone.

Haaaa! Aye mi!

It didn’t make any sense to me and I was lost in thought, thinking of how many ways that random incident could have gone wrong, yet this okada rider felt he had done a justifiable thing. Wahala be like what again?

Eventually, we arrived at our destination and by now my gratitude antennas were on and I was thanking God for protecting me while I waited for him to hand over my fifty-naira change.

Lo and behold, my rider was looking at me like, “why do I want to collect the change?”

In my head, I was like “don’t even try me” abi which kain wahala be this? Before I sat on the bike, I told him where I was going and asked for the price, and I also told him how much I had with me, and he said we were good to go.

He eventually got off the bike and asked around for change and when he seemed not to get it, he came back to say “you big pass fifty-naira nah”. Tori olorun, which kain thing be this? I pretended not to hear and waited till he eventually came back with my change and muttered away. Abi, e o wa gba mi ke.

It’s not enough that this man almost killed me because of his entitlement, he still wanted me to leave my change because he felt he was entitled to it again?

Hmmmmm…. Things dey occur o.

Las las, I had to wait 2 extra hours to see the movie because the schedule was changed, and when the movie eventually started showing, I wished I didn’t leave my house for a lot of reasons. I had bought tickets with the worst set of people anyone could find themselves in the movies with.

Assin, while some chatted loudly all through the movie, some folks had their camera flashlights on as they recorded the movie, the ones beside me were on a work meeting and had their phones on loudspeaker for a major part of the watch, and for Chrissakes! Who takes a call during a movie only to be shouting “pe mi pada mo wa ninu cinema”? who??

Wo, that’s it for July. Help me thank God that I am alive and entitlement did not kill me.

If you enjoyed reading, leave a clap behind, share with your friends, and of course, leave a comment if you’ve ever been in any of these situations.

Till next month, I love you.