My Experience And I -By Samuel Orekoya

Experience and I

I sit in silent contemplation of what could have been and what actually is. I think of the opportunity cost; the alternative forgone. I consider, what if I had gone this way instead of that, if I had said this instead of that, might I have been two steps forward or five steps backward? If I could turn the hands of time backward, would I?

I have come to one conclusion: I am who I am not by providence, I am a function of a divinely orchestrated plan; my actions, inactions and omissions have come together in the cauldron called life and have cooked a broth called experience and have served it up to me, when I was but a sickly infant.
The hotness and the odour of the broth, made my sickly body quiver even more, oh how foul it was!
As I was force fed this concoction, I felt it leave burn patches on my tongue and scalding down my throat. I fumed and raged, without the ability to comprehend the necessity of this process, I simply wondered, ‘how would this torture help me?’

Not a long while after, I felt a tingling in my hands, a jerking in my knees, my heart began to beat faster and my eyes grew a little sharper. That broth called experience actually was working! I felt better and could act better. A little more of this or that and the broth would have been ruined, and I just would have been a sickly child with a burnt throat and a dislike for broth.

My experiences have cultivated me, removed my weeds and watered my roots. They have made me who I am. It still must be said, that I have not achieved perfection. I am a human, who falls but always gets back up. My experience is not all that makes me grow, for there also is the sunlight, my environment, my people, my loves and other ingredients which the human is made from.

I sit still, and I look on, not with indignation or regret, but with supreme satisfaction. Most of my actions I can speak for, and for the rest, I speak not. I live, I learn. From my experience, I create and I achieve. In my contemplation, I resolve to do one thing: to move on with life, unhindered by ghosts of errors past, or obstacles of the present. All stumbling blocks will be turned to stepping stones, all life’s lemons become lemonade. The beauty in humanity is not in our perfection, but in our ability to make mistakes and yet recover from them, ever so gracefully.

Times past, times present, and the future, all converge at one precise moment to duff their hats to me; at the moment when I look on, with perfect satisfaction and blissful contentment and I say “all is well”.