Each year we ask our classmates a straightforward, simple question taken from the lines of a poem by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Mary Oliver. We share with you intimate and candid responses to this question, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Concept and photography: Tony Deifell, MBA 2002.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
It’s April 6th, 2017. I’m in my dimly lit apartment. Before me is a knife and a disinfectant. I can’t decide which of the two is the more efficient tool to ease me into the afterlife.
Until then, I’d been the dream child, with stellar grades and a prestigious career. A wife, kids, and a Forbes’ rank were all that was left. However, I didn’t care much for these things. I didn’t love my job. I didn’t want a wife and was on the fence about children – truths that could pluck me from the top of Nigerian society and throw me into the basket of deplorables.
I’m therefore thinking, “why not go out on a high, while the family is still proud of you?”
Hours pass and the tools before me remain untouched. I can’t bring myself to lift a finger. I quiver in shame at my apparent weakness. I reluctantly abandon the idea of suicide as I realize that something else must perish in my stead.
It would take weeks and my uncle’s death before I finally figure out what.
It may be uninspiring but ever since, my aspiration has been to be myself and do what makes me happy. Today, I take classes to learn, and not for the grades. I accept jobs that interest me, irrespective of the pay. If along the way, I manage to change the world, great. If not, that’s great too!
But no longer will I reject life so that the expectations of others may live.
