TYWA 2020 Nomination for The Read-Worthy Prize Prisca

 

13 - FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

Ekoh Ogheneovo Prisca lives in Delta State (16 years old). This story was slightly edited for grammatical accuracy and to better serve TGF readers. The originality of the story is 100% intact.

"Change," one of the earliest six-letter words a child would probably learn to spell but hardly consider as a daily lexicon had been lingering on Danielle’s teenage mind in recent time.

Like Heraclitus said when he made the now-famous quote, “Change is the only constant thing in life,” five years ago, as the Nigerian elections unfolded, heralded by the change mantra, Danielle’s eleven-year-old self was in her own transition phase from primary to secondary school.

Just as the excitement of change from the Nigerian electioneering process filled the air with the promise of a certain utopist society free from corruption with boisterous economic opportunities for all, so the thought of freedom as a boarder filled her eleven-year mind.

Danielle, the last of seven siblings, who had been sheltered all her life wondered to herself what the joys and the thrills in her soon to be autonomous life would be. 

“Apart from losing my nine-year-old well-groomed natural hair what else is there to lose?” she said to herself after cutting her hair. As resumption day approached the thought of living without her parents slowly eroded her initial excitement and gave way to fear.

On arrival at the school’s compound, she found the environment appealing; the nicely cut grasses and well-painted walls caught her fancy. After enrollment and biding her parents’ goodbye, the realities of sleeping on a small-sized mattress, the long queues to get food that tasted like water, and the regimented lifestyle became her new normal.

It had been five years now, Danielle had made friends, aspired to lead, and won several academic laurels. Just as it was five years ago, it was time for another change, the transition from secondary school to university.

This change had pre-occupied her mind in recent time. While a child’s path in secondary school is pre-defined, the university is a whole different ball game with myriads of courses culminating into an entirely different profession she said within herself. 

The thought of not making the wrong choice of course to study, or the current failings of the government to arrest the youth unemployment, were some of the fears she considered as she approached this new phase of her life.

Although Danielle’s fears seem narrowed to teenagers, it is universal as it affects all age, race and creed during a change, and it is often termed the fear of the unknown.

Review: There is arguably no better way to describe the popular Fear of The Unknown than what this story tells us about the numerous transitions of a teenage soul in life's school. -TGF team.

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