Living as a Nightcrawler: My Side of the Story
Intro:
And I always wish that someday I too will learn to sleep early. This now is a childhood dream creeping into what has become the man I am. I know so much about the night and even find a subtle peace in everyday life that keeps the night alive.
It all didn’t start like this. I wasn’t a nightcrawler. I sleep as normal children sleep but my parents love night lives. My dad was a party juggler, he and his friends clanged beer cups in most restaurants while I was younger. My mum didn’t really stay that long but she soon grew to live the night life since she was always the one to open the door when my father returned.
How it started:
I was young and never partook in all of these. My siblings and I were always hurried to bed, but I soon snapped out of this by staying awake to watch WWE and late-night movies on Channels TV and some Yoruba folklore movies on Galaxy TV, MBI, and Silverbird. My childhood was a stone throw to many things in between.
Where Things Became Worse.
Fast forward to my days in the University of Benin as an undergraduate. This time, I had become a potential nightcrawler but this still didn’t sink in until I made the decision to make a mark in my Department of English and Literature. A lot was going on simultaneously back home and it felt safe to be somewhere outside the whirlwind. So, I chose to pour my pains into reading all through the night. I read and God blessed me with a great partner and friends too.
Many of them really didn’t get to know this side of the story. I read and made everything around me revolve around reading since it gave me the kind of comfort closest to what I hoped for. I grew to love books and read even more. I nearly lost my sight at some point, but I still didn’t stop.
Where I was then…
My degree program ended, and this was when I realized I had become a nightcrawler. For the first month after my last paper, I found it so hard to sleep earlier than 5am. It was painful and abnormal, so when I finally returned home there was nothing, I could do to stop this. While my siblings and my grandma were snoring out the day’s stress, I was glued to a TV series, a book, or some movie. Doing this made me feel lighter and drained of the extra energies. I always did this till my elder brother was about to leave for work.
Where I am now…
Prayers upon prayers, advice upon advice, talks and screams, but still I felt helpless trying to sleep anything earlier than 4am. It’s been about 7 years since I graduated from the university and here I am thanking God for the grace to now sleep as early as 2 am each day. Living as a nightcrawler mostly isn’t what one decides to do, nature does the picking.
Here is my story…do you mind sharing yours? Please, do.
Damilink
