SC-S29/W5 – Nostalgia Of The Little Me: My Favorite Childhood Place

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Good day steemians,

The moment i saw this contest, It immediately brought back sweet memories that left a wide smile on my face. I remembered how playful and eventful child i was, maybe because my neighborhood was very populated.

So many stories, but this particular story has top the chart.

When growing up, we had a play spot situated towards the end of the street, was an incomplete building without fence, with heaps of sand everywhere. Since our parents’ do not let us play during the day, we sneak out from our various homes every midnight every kid to convey at this spot to play.

We would play from that 12am even down till 3am, very unbelievable but true. Then houses were build without fence. The neighborhood was safe and secure.

We had no alarm but we all know the time. We all successfully sneak out of our parents’ houses. Children from different ethnicity, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and other tribes numbering 20 to 30 kids.

Who started this play group, no one knows, how we knew the time and chose the location is still a mystery to me till date.

All we know is that at a particular time dead in the night, we come out at the incomplete building, play until we are tired . We were all kids between 10 to 15 years , we kept this secret amongst ourselves

All through the adventure months, no immoral act, no physicial abuse, just children having fun with pure and innocent hearts.

Unfortunately, our little secret only lasted only for few months. Some of us relocated, some went to boarding school and the Hausa girls amongst us whose culture was to get married very early got married and moved. The lesser the lesser the children became, the lesser fun we had. I would say it just died a natural death, but in our hearts, the memories we shared at that incomplete building are still fresh and alive.

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This memory taught me 2 most important lessons in life. First, it influenced the way i see and relate with people. I don't discriminate against people, till date, I still have cordial relationship with people of different age grades, even far younger, tribe or religion. Whenever i come in contact with anyone, I see a fellow human I should treat grace and respect, the word "hate" does not exist in my world.

Second lesson this story taught me is the innocence of children in our early years. Children of opposite sex, religion, tribe, social status could play and relate well with each other without any inappropriate occurances. I always feel sadden when I see children of this age misbehave. These social vices we find common among the children of these generation was never so from the beginning. I have 2 children and I intentionally teach them genuine love for each other and every other child out there.

All these lessons, I learnt in an incomplete building with children less than 15 years genuinely loving and caring for one another.

Each time I remember this story, tears flows down my eyes, I ask my self one sincere question. What happened to the world, why is my country no longer safe.

This is a real life story but can it happen now? The answer is no, a very big no.
Who can come out to play at that ungodly hour in this present world, without the fear of this and that.

I pray our children would have the opportunity to create memories that would impact them positively and the society would not steal their childhood from them

Thank you for the opportunity to share my childhood memory.