Procrastination is the Thief of Time

I am a college student, who procrastinates about most things. The above quote in the title of this post was found on the wall of one of the building in the village I stayed in this weekend. This weekend I went to the Volta Region, home to Wli Falls (West Africa’s Tallest Waterfalls). At the base of Wli, there a few places to stay. A friend had suggested we call a man named “ Mighty Wisdom,” who had met them randomly last week when they said they were hiking up to the falls, and he suggested that they follow his lead to experience something “real.” We followed this route on Friday, where we met Mighty and a young man named Innocence, who worked at the place we spent Friday night after we saw the lower falls. The evening was relaxing. Rice and beans, one candle as our source of light, and meaningful conversation definitely put us in a state of peace.

On Saturday, Mighty, my three friends, and I embarked on a seven-hour journey through the mountains to a remote village located in a place dubbed “No Man’s Land,” because of its location between Ghana and Togo. Without having to say it, probably the most I have ever challenged by body and mind to this day. Once in the beautiful village, we cooked contomere (sp.) with rice. After eating heaps upon heaps of rice and beginning to feel the soreness of the physically straining day, I had no trouble falling asleep on the straw mat. It was nice being up in the mountains, especially since it was much cooler than Accra’s roasting sun and humidity. 

The morning consisted of dressing in traditional cloth, having a meeting with the chief of the village, where he and all the elders greeted us. When visitors come to a village, they must greet the chief with a gift, and of course Mighty Wisdom said the best gift is some Gin. We proceeded to take shots early in the morning with the group of elders. After our meeting, we learned how to carry a baby on our backs, how to pound Banku and Fufu, and carry water on our heads. The open arms of this community of farmers and self-sustaining workers made us feel more than welcome. A plate of beans, cassava, palm oil, bananas, and a bowl of palm wine later, we set off on our trek down to the base of the falls.

I already miss the village. Accra does give me a sense of comfort and home, but nothing like the village did. It is surreal being able to understand what living abroad is doing to us when we stop to think about our changing and learning minds. A friend and I were chatting on our journey down the mountain about how we would even attempt to explain the transformation we are going through. It is about stripping down these layers of “ourselves,” but it is not our real selves that we are stripping away. These layers are visages and what we want people to see. Although many are comfortable in saying that they are themselves 100% of the time, I do not believe it. I am actually seeing it in action now, but life is about stripping away these parts of ourselves that lead to your inner core and the consistencies of who one is. Personally, I find myself being true self almost all of the time, but I am realizing there is this wall often times that I do not notice.

This leads me to the point that we need to be more open with other humans. If we have these fears of being judged constantly, we are going to go day by day without something that is essential to life, and that is the concept of meaningful relationships. If we all put away our judgmental mentalities and are more accepting of others, we will receive much more meaning in our lives instantly. So lets stop procrastinating about the unimportant aspects of our lives, and really try to understand why we are here. I believe we are all set out to retrieve our destiny. There is something we have within ourselves that is a passion, a driving factor in our existence, and if we don’t dive into our core and challenge ourselves to find it, we are only wasting what could be meaningful minutes, hours, days, and years in our lives. The exchange between two real people is an indescribable concept, and if we strive for that connection, I believe true happiness will come for those individuals and their lives.