So I’ve been in Leicester for a year. A place I called home for the duration of my time in Ibodo Oyibo (white mans land). It was a good place to be but I found myself yearning to be around my friends and family back home in Nigeria, in seeing familiar faces around me. It took only a year but being away from home gave me an appreciation for what I had. I started to see Leicester has a place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere but in Nigeria. Not to say life wasn’t good there but I’m looking to the future and the life I would like to build can’t be anywhere but home.

Leaving England was rather bittersweet. I left with my Sister that day. I was calm when I got home but at the same time really excited. My inner core was screaming out in joy when I heard the first insult being thrown in my mother tongue.  It was rowdy, it was loud, it was life as I had come to know it. Finally, some excitement I thought. So anyway, I got the luggage and I’m walking down towards the exit and my mum is waiting there adorned in her native attire with a warm welcoming smile standing there to receive both me and my sister. The ride home was fun. I was in my city again. Lagos was inviting. I had seen how the other side lived but it would never be Lagos.

I finally got home and my dad greeted me with a handshake as if to welcome me to manhood. I was glad being back in my private quaters, my bedroom where I had painstakingly made my comfort zone. And so the story ends. I’m here now and nothing will ever take me away from it.