One more chance?

One middle-aged woman next to me murmured under her breath, “I wish I was sixteen again.” It was probably not intended for my hearing, but omo, I couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. It was so ironic because when I was sixteen, I wished to grow up so fast. Not because of any particular thing, but because it just felt better.

It’s funny how age has a way of changing our perspectives. At sixteen, adulthood felt like freedom, freedom to make my own choices, to chase big dreams, to escape the rules. But here was this woman, looking back at sixteen like it was some sort of paradise. It made me wonder: what did she long for that was left behind? The carefree days? The endless possibilities? The innocence of youth?

Life has a way of making us want what we no longer have. Maybe the woman wanted a chance to do things differently, to chase forgotten dreams, or to experience moments she let slip by too quickly. And maybe, as I sit here, hoping to rush into the future, I'll one day look back at this moment and wish for one more chance too. Isn’t that the irony of life? We rush through, only to find that sometimes the best moments are the ones we didn’t even know we were living.

Maybe that’s just how life is, a constant dance between looking forward and looking back. But maybe, instead of wishing for lost time, we can learn to appreciate where we are now. Each age, each stage, has something worth savouring if we take a moment to see it. The things I once rushed through might be the very memories I hold dear tomorrow. So here’s to living fully today, finding joy in the present, and knowing that one day, we’ll look back and be glad we made the most of it.

With love,

Olamide from MANI