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42
Student @ Nasarawa State University
I wished I had listened
<p><br/></p><p>They warned me softly at first.</p><p>In quiet sentences. In tired eyes. In the way their voices trembled when they said my name.</p><p>But I was young, and confidence felt like armor. I thought listening meant weakness. I thought love was enough to protect me from consequences.</p><p>They said, “Slow down.”</p><p>I heard, “You’re afraid.”</p><p>They said, “Be careful.”</p><p>I heard, “You don’t believe in me.”</p><p>So I kept going.</p><p>I trusted promises that were never meant to last. I ignored the red flags because they didn’t match the picture in my head. I silenced the people who loved me because their truth didn’t feel good to hear.</p><p>And then one day, the silence became loud.</p><p>The calls stopped.</p><p>The laughter faded.</p><p>The future I imagined cracked right down the middle.</p><p>That was when I realized something cruel about regret: it waits patiently. It doesn’t rush you. It lets you feel proud first. Then it sits beside you when everything falls apart and whispers, “I tried to warn you.”</p><p>I replay the moments now.</p><p>The advice I brushed off.</p><p>The tears I didn’t take seriously.</p><p>The love I mistook for control.</p><p>If I had listened, I would have saved myself nights of crying into pillows, asking questions with no answers.</p><p>If I had listened, I wouldn’t be learning lessons the hard way, alone.</p><p>But life doesn’t rewind.</p><p>All I can do now is listen better—to my heart, to wisdom, to the quiet voices I once ignored.</p><p>And when someone younger than me shrugs off my words the way I once did, I don’t get angry.</p><p>I just smile sadly and think,</p><p>I know. I thought I knew too.</p>
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5
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