<p>One day you look out the window envisioning what your 20s would be like, filled with hope and fantasy of a world you’d envisioned as a child.</p><p>You had dreams as large as your imagination could contain, you were limitless and unstoppable, at least in your mind, you set out with a dream wanting to bring your imagination into the real world and the first thing you were greeted with was the human nature to which your parents shielded you from. Yes, humans were good as much as they were also evil, they were hypocrites but you only saw the good from kind-hearted parents who had ensured you grew right.</p><p>Life happened, you struggled but never gave up on your dreams, even when JAMB dashed you on the wall, you picked up yourself and pushed your way through the disrupted educational system of your country and secured your place within the jungle called a university, like a hunter sent to hunt with no weapon or a farmer with no tool, you become resourceful with the trade by barter strategy and worked your way to surviving through every academic session showing your resourcefulness while maintaining your integrity, though you cried yet your dreams were not scrambled, neither were they looking blur, with clarity you fought within a jungle saddled with the task to bring about your death, within this jungle you found friends who became family and you became a beacon of hope to people.</p><p>Although not a religious fanatic, believed that God existed (a Christian who bore guilt) and he was at your aid at every point in time, birth anniversaries were like sad days, days when floods flowed through the gates of your eyelids, when a smiley face was a mask you had learned to put on, the dreams you foresaw were still within reach.</p><p>A champion you emerge from the jungle now to face the evil forest of life, bold-faced with the mask of a smiley face but a sad heart only knowing hard work is your only option, like a gladiator you are motivated to face new opponents in a fierce battle for survival, knowing no one is coming to help and the responsibility you carry winning was the only option.</p><p>Now looking through another window envisioning your 30s with a dream even bigger, the battle is as fierce as ever but yet motivated like never before, you are Maximus who will win their freedom in the glory of blood and honor of the arena called life, but unlike Maximus dying isn’t an option for you.</p><p>Like it or not this is a true story.</p>
BATTLE-SCARRED HOPE
By
Godwin Erite