TwoCents | GIVE ME MORE - by Oluseyi Vandy

Entitlement is a scary thing. I thought it was a thing with privileged people because it stands to reason that someone who has had things their way would take being rejected badly, boy was that mindset corrected when I entered the city of Lagos. Coming in from PH, I had a love thy-neighbour mindset. I still do, but I've learned that there are many ways to show love and though you might argue with me on this, saying no could be one of the best ways to do so. How? You might ask, well, it makes people know that life doesn't always go the way they want it, hence having a healthy expectation of life and situations. It is no secret that the cost of things are higher than the standards of a perfectionist, which brings me to my story. I was heading out early when I was stopped by someone, a fellow guy, young and healthy. We exchanged greetings and he promptly follows with find me something. I laugh and tell him that I don't have cash in hand, to which he still repeats his request and me repeating my answer. Then he follows up with the country is hard, me obviously not knowing what magic he thought that information would do with the abscence of money in my pocket repeated the thing i had said several times now before I left him. I thought about it and couldn't get passed certain things, I get sometimes you have to be persistent, but that can easily and quickly turn to harassment or just disturbance.  Think about it, you're going about your business, thinking of your responsibility and how to manage yourself and then someone apporaches you with a level of confidence like they gave you money to keep for them or did a fabour that you now owe them for, when in reality you 2 probably haven't met or exchanged anything other than greetings.  Many take advantage of gospel and morality, people feel guilty like they did something bad when in reality it takes a lot to give out of your hard work, especially when the said receiver doesn't really appreciate the gesture because they expect to be given at demand. They act like the quote of country being hard doesn't in any way affect you. Like you have some magical well to draw from whenever others lack. Some have perfected the habit of making their poor planning your responsibility or emergency, like you do not have people that actually rely on you. While people wake up with plans for their day, others dress up and decide, I will stand on the road and bad as e bad, I will make so and so. They are not disabled, or invalid, they just know and work on the principle that help comes to those who ask, and they have resolved to ask the hell out of whoever crosses their path.

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