Greetings everyone!
I remember the time we were done with the compulsory 21 days of orientation camping in NYSC and we were posted to our various cities and villages within that state. A lot of people began running helter-skelter just to change their location to the city because they wanted to live in the city, believing that city life is better. At that particular moment, I had only heard about the place I was posted to and hadn’t been transported there yet. The simple questions I asked were: Is the place a city or a village? How is life there? Do people there run helter-skelter because of war? Do they engage in a lot of deity acts? Do they have electricity?
These questions stemmed from the fact that it's in the Eastern part of Nigeria, which is very keen on the Biafra agitation, and with such, fighting and war are prone to occur. Also, the deity issue resulted from what we usually watch in the movies, and I didn’t want to live in a compound where I would wake up to meet human flesh and blood splattered everywhere all in the name of monthly deity sacrifice. I was told that the place is peaceful, and though it's a village, it isn’t that typical because there’s a bank there and electricity is available on a near-regular basis. So that was it. That was how I agreed to stay and didn’t bother to go for the city life. All through my stay there, there wasn’t any cause for alarm, except one time during the election when we were cautioned not to move within the state in uniform because the Biafra agitation was intense at that moment.
When it comes to defining a healthy environment, it differs for a lot of people.
When it comes to a physical living environment, a healthy environment for me is a simple one—just let there be peace, and I’m good to go. All through my life, I haven’t lived in warzone environments. The only time I saw myself running for my life was when I was in school, and that was because there was a communal clash and we had to evacuate the environment we lived in.
A peaceful environment is considered a healthy living environment for me. When an environment is void of war and thuggery, the people there are always well-mannered and don’t turn the place into a gangster-like setting. I won’t lie—places like the northern part of Nigeria, where killings are announced on a regular basis, are a no-go area for me. Even the most populated place in Nigeria, Lagos, is not considered a healthy environment for me, even as beautiful as it appears on the screen.
When it comes to living with people, such as in family, marriage, and relationships, a healthy environment for me is one that is trouble-free. The trouble here doesn’t mean people getting into physical fights, no. Even something as little as keeping malice, allowing greed to control someone over others, or even someone cheating in a relationship is considered an unhealthy environment.
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to Week 98, Edition 03 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community