When life becomes a gridlock

If you live in Aba and you have anything to do with Aba-Owerri Road, you know to avoid it during rush hour. Rush hour is quite popular in many metropolises and known to give traffic jam. This is when everybody who owns a vehicle is on the road going to work or driving the children to school. In Aba, two places gridlock happens all the time almost on a daily basis are Ogbor Hill (at the Waterside bridge at 5pm) and Aba Owerri Road by Union Bank junction. The latter is incurable. Gridlocks have always happened on that road since the '90s. But with constant rehabilitation of the road, it appeared to have abated only to return in recent times. Life sometimes is comparable to Aba-Owerri Road in a gridlock.

Picture credit: tribune.com.pk

Life doesn't always give us what we want. Many of us have had our lives planned out from when we were asked, "What would you like to be when you grow up?" We wanted to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, footballers (don't you think so?), chefs (not popular in Nigeria), or musicians (yes, many of them are super rich, ask DBanj or Don Jazzy). Whatever got us to have such lofty ideals made us happy. We were happy achievers, go-setters even as children. We had vision and passion. We were on the road to achieving our goals. Then life happens.

When life happens we become stuck in the traffic of our intersecting goals. We have many competing things to do, work, family life, education, business, etc. We don't even know when we would become successful. And uh! If we are single and still searching and it doesn't appear that the search is ending soon, life becomes boring and monotonous. We are stuck again in "What would you like to be when you grow up?" Growing up has become a wedge in our dreams.

Gridlocks signal a problem. They don't happen, things bring them up, like in the case of Aba and many cities in Abia state (and even Nigeria): badly maintained roads, and so many cars on a particular route (population density). In life, gridlocks also signal that one is probably in need or reorientation or on the wrong road at a particular time. A detour is in order. Perhaps one needs a career change? Need to consider one's lifestyle and how that is affecting everything else? And relocation might also be in order. Many people have had to move away from cities just to refresh and find meaning again in life. A divorce might give back people's mojo to them. Yes, that eerie topic of moving ahead and finding purpose in another station, even after losing a partner to death or life circumstances.

I don't need to tell you what to do to get you out of Aba-Owerri Road gridlock because it's organic, an early start may be the panacea for you. Try getting up early to beat the traffic or stay home and relax. Somehow the bills will still be paid especially if your are the boss. Life doesn't give us many options with gridlocks, does it?