The United States of an African

Singing “Journey to the paaaaast“. Such an awesome song from an awesome movie; Dreamwork’s Anastacia.

Since being home, I have taken it upon myself to de-clutter the entire house, from the bottom up. In doing so, I have found myself through a portal to a past life. An escape from the statistics being fed by the news and narcissism from social media. I look through the photographs and can’t help but yearn for simpler days. Of course back then in my childish naivete I was unaware of the magnitude of the world’s chaos and the stress inducing responsibilities of adulthood. Warning to any child or teenager who stumbles upon this blog: being a grown up is overrated. But I was brought up relatively privileged. Side note, I just found out that I was literally born with a silver spoon. A gift from my grandfather! Going through the old photographs, I am eternally grateful for the privilege I had to experience different worlds around me during my early years. I am who I am because of my early exposure and interactions.

As parts of the world begin to open up and I make decisions on trips planned for the latter part of 2020, how about we look through some photos from my past…prior to this blog?

As you may know, I was born in London, England. I never actually lived there, but I spent a good number of my childhood years visiting family.

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One of my earliest memories of travel is taking trips within Nigeria. From 45 minute trips to my dad’s village in Kono and a few hours east to my mum’s village in Umukabia to flights a little north to the middle of the country. I remember this particular trip to Jos in Plateau quite well. We visited a game reserve where I witnessed huge snakes devour rabbits. Scarred for life! At least I got to pick strawberries at a local farm.

Watching Disney movies, MTV and Nickelodeon, I always dreamed of visiting America. When my sisters left the country to attend university in Massachusetts, I finally had the opportunity.

We eventually lived in Massachusetts. But in the blink of an eye, my dad’s job took us across the pond to the Netherlands. We lived in Wassenaar. I have nothing but fond memories growing up there. I plan on visiting the country again. This time to experience it as an adult. Living in the Netherlands, it was not only easy to visit family back in England, but also to check out the continent. I remember a road trip we took to England. We drove to Calais, France and hopped on a ferry across the water to Dover, England. Through basketball (yes I played basketball), I was able to visit and compete in Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium. My brother’s elementary school project on Antoni Gaudi sent my family and I to Barcelona for some research (vacation).

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We eventually made our way back to Nigeria. Lagos, Nigeria to be exact. While in Nigeria, I had the opportunity to visit Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana. It is a travel goal of mine to visit all the regions of Africa.

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When we moved back to the States, we spent a lot of time being tourists. Honestly, it’s not like we’ve stopped. And I’m pretty sure when things go back to “normal” after the pandemic, we’re gonna be aggressive with traveling the states.

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Somehow, somewhere down the line, my family took an interest in cruises. This year is looking like it’s going to be the first time no one is going on a cruise since the first time. My first cruise trip in 2014 took us to St. Maarten, and the US Virgin Islands. I had never seen such beauty that is the Caribbean sea. I wasn’t fully aware that these places where just a hop and a skip away from America.

I hope you enjoyed going down memory lane with me. I don’t remember all the trips I’ve been, but I know for sure, moving forward I will ever take travel for granted. It is a privilege. I also want to take this moment to recognize my grandfather who traveled the world! He passed that curiosity and passion down to my mother. And now because of my parents, I have the travel bug! I pray that one day, I get to experience the world with my own little family and pass down the travel bug to my future children. That’s the only type of bug I’m trying to deal with.