One warm Saturday evening several years back, we had spent most part of the day on my father’s farm and had returned home late in the evening. We had fed on cooked maize all day at the farm and we looked forward to a sumptuous meal later that night. As we got home, we sat in the front balcony of the house when my uncle who was, at the time, an undergraduate arrived from the University and we were so delighted to see him after a long time.
As a way of welcoming him from a long journey, my father sent my immediate elder brother to buy pounded yam and egusi soup for him. For those who grew up in the Yoruba land of Nigeria, we all know how important and special it was to have pounded yam and egusi soup as a meal. With the exception of the Ekiti people of western Nigeria, pounded yam is some sort of luxury meal in some other states like ours, may be because it takes a lot of efforts to prepare.
Remember we had fed on maize all day on the farm and we were waiting to have a, somewhat, sumptuous meal for dinner but here was my uncle who just came from the University devouring pounded yam and egusi soup. The sumptuous meal cooking for the rest of the family was rice and fish stew. I admired my uncle for having the license to eat pounded yam even when others were planning to eat rice. I figured that his license to eat pounded yam in such a situation was his studentship as a university undergraduate.
As young as I was, I decided that if what it takes to always eat pounded yam is to be a university student, I must go to the University. Pounded yam was my motivation and each time I dream of going to the University, I dream of days I would return from the campus and my dad would order my younger brother to go buy me a sumptuous plate of pounded yam and egusi soup
Men and brethren, I went to the University and I never had pounded yam and egusi soup on my return home. Lol.
I had other foods but the pounded yam years back motivated something in the younger me.
What are the lessons here:
1. The biggest motivations in life don’t come from motivational speakers, they rather come from little and somewhat insignificant situations
2. Always look for motivation from every little thing
3. Own your story. No matter how funny it sounds. It’s your greatest motivation
What is your own pounded yam story?
Thanks Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU
