“Frustration is a shared sickness in my country. You are managing yours and I'm managing mine!”
Words of a wise woman.
We live in a highly tensed and packed country with people from different walks of life pushing and making things work in their own way and with the way life works you have no choice but to interact with other people, which is beautiful don't get me wrong but some interactions end and leave you gasping for air, angry, sweating and wondering how the hell you got there.
This story starts on a Wednesday afternoon with Toke getting back to her hostel exhausted yet energized and ready for more work before getting her well deserved rest. She drops off her bag in her room before making her way to her friend's room upstairs.
Pause!
Silence, gospel music, her friend Ria sitting on the floor nodding with emergence. Prayer meeting!
She immediately retracts and sits outside by the stairway settling for a manageable option to enjoy the good network but of course Canva is going to lag. She sneaks back in, carries her laptop and resumes her position by the stairway continuing her work.
Almost thirty minutes later, she takes a break after her laptop gave up on her and checks back to see if Ria was done with her prayer session. Seeing her lying on her bed comfortably gave her the encouragement to go in, plug in her devices and settle into the empty bedspace opposite her friend.
Somehow without speaking Toke sensed a weird air in the room and kept to herself making videos and preparing for her meeting later in the evening, close to the meeting starting she asked Ria to please keep her laptop volume down, big mistake sha.
She had a successful meeting, settled in even better resting on the bed and scrolling through TikTok making the room even more tense and awkward. As if things were bound for ruin, Ria's roommate got back from a trip that night leaving her with no choice but to leave confused and overthinking why her friend was giving her the cold shoulder.
Cause of frustration number one secured!
New day, Thursday morning, 10am class, hardhead lecturer who would disgrace you out of his class if you dared to come late.
Toke had one job, “be ready by 9:40, call her friend Mide and get to class at least five minutes early”. Stepping out of the hostel by 9:45, she was fifteen minutes shy of making it to class. Alas, the streets of the hostel area were missing Keke (tricycle) men going their way towards CIS.
Cause of frustration number two secured!
Seeing the minutes go by fast, fanning herself frantically, muttering words of frustration, all while waiting for the lucky Keke man to save the day and get hero status. Few precious minutes go by and finally, he finally came along with his dark brown skin, deep blue shirt and custard yellow Keke, yelling CIS and crossing the road at the same time with hope of making it to class early enough Toke and Mide get comfortable and immediately ask “Se man gba transfer?” (do you accept transfers?)
His answer, *“will I get the credit alert?” *was enough to make Toke and Mide turn to each other and make a face. Working fast to cheat network and time, Toke starts the transfer process typing in the account number and waiting for the name confirmation, again he interrupts with another question, “won't you ask for my name?”, clearly not satisfied with no response he goes on a short rant on being a victim of fake transfers, nobody asked bruh!
Also, he already verified his account name to another passenger so getting the correct name was not the issue and God forbid his choice of bank because who in their well functioning mind still banks with FCMB especially in a fast moving environment like ours, everybody with Opay and Palmpay accounts apparently have two heads.
Obviously uninterested and irritated, Toke continues the transfer, finishing up and downloading the receipt to show him once they got to their destination. Getting to CIS, Toke and Mide get down and move forward to show him their evidence of payment and he suddenly bursts into a louder rant on how they refused to verify his name as how he had not received a credit alert.
Clearly tired of the noise, Toke replies asking him to keep checking and stop yelling at her. Mid escalation, the curly head in front decides to interfere with her unsolicited solution of paying with cash and collecting my number to transfer to her later. Not interested in her talk, Toke replies, “why the fuck would I do that when I already paid?”
Ding!
The stupid credit alert finally made its star appearance, too late, very unnecessary. Toke, at the height of her frustration, faces him and says straight with full conviction and says, “you are very rude and stupid”.
The loser in him, clearly wanting the last word, shoots his head out and yells, “you are very stupid too, bastard”.
Back almost immediately, Toke yells back,* “you are fucking bastard, see this fool o”.*
“Your papa, your mama”.
“Ahh, see this fool, your grandpapa, your grandmama, your entire family, your Keke join sef!”.
Toke, already defeated by an idiotic Keke man, an impending lecturer humiliation ritual made her way up the stairs feeling very heated and annoyed.
Examining the course of events, frustration can be very confusing especially when not properly processed, it makes you act out both in the right and wrong situations but like I said earlier, it's a managed sickness, symptoms tend to flare up even with careful treatment so this events are almost normal especially in my country.
For the purpose of proper understanding, Toke is me, I am Toke and with that I've called it fair and I can confirm the day ended up better than I could have ever imagined.