I HAVE COME A VERY LONG WAY…

I have come a very long way in the pursuit of MEANING, though I only began the journey at the very late age of 27.

By social and legal calendar, childhood ended at 18, but I remained it’s captive till 27. I suffered a delayed childhood for at LEAST 7 years.

Please note that I use the word, ‘LEAST’ responsibly, cautiously and consciously.

The preparation for adulthood is an 18 year project, which must begin from cradle. The implication of this is that upon arriving adulthood, a person is supposed to hit the ground running in terms of taking responsibilities for some advanced responsibilities like Life Management, through the effective use of soft skills, including independent decision making, marriage, parenting, entering into lawful contracts, employment, payment of tax, voting and participation in government and many other life and destiny sensitive responsibilities.

I arrived at adulthood and all that those who raised me bequeathed to me was calendar age, which is nothing but chronological arrangement of number. My mental age had been neglected. I was simply not prepared for the responsibilities of adulthood, some of which I enumerated above.

Yet the society had expectations and these expectations do not wait or take into cognisance the fact that I was not RAISED but ERASED.

My time for taking responsibilities and achieving results began to tick and yet I was clueless as to how to navigate the affairs of my life and those depending on my capacity and sanity.

The most unfortunate thing was that I was not aware I was malfunctioning neither was the society aware nor schooled to be aware, so she was ruthless in her expectations

So at 27, I had a divine visitation, which did not only jolt me to the reality of my terribly dyfunctional childhood, which has created a full-blown dyfunctional adulthood but also began to open my reality to the possibility of change.

So I define CHANGE as an EVER-PRESENT POSSIBILITY for any human being who is ready to take RESPONSIBILITY.

But it has been a very costly journey, which has required serious management and is therefore prone to minor and major lapses.

It is a costly journey of PERSONAL DISCOVERY and CHANGE because it is nothing but learning on the job of MANAGING and EXCELLING in the matters of meaningful existence. Yet life and time wait for no one.

Major and minor lapses are inevitable because the society is not schooled to take it easy with you and therefore do not reduce the pressure they exert by the reckoning of your age.

But despite the huge challenges, I have come a long way; a very long way for that matter, though a project in progress.

It has been 23 years of transformation under God. I have, hanged on my walls of experience, thorns and trophies but I think I have more of trophies than thorns.

It is my life resolution and commitment to stand in the gap for the younger generation and pour out myself into them, contributing my quote to preparing them for the onerous responsibilities of adulthood.

From the relentless efforts over the years and now coupled with new innovations under our NGO, S.A.F.E™ for Children Society, publishing of the S.A.F.E™VILLE Family Comics, S.A.F.E™VILLE ONE DAY CLUB and others at the planning stages, the foregoing commitment is far from being that of a toothless bulldog or of an emasculated paper tiger.

On Saturday April 4, 2020 at our S.A.F.E™VILLE ONE DAY CLUB, working with my team, we will be working with your precious youngsters to consider and enrich the Soft Skills Scorecard.

My STORY is my UNIQUE STRENGTH…
My LESSONS are my PRICELESS ASSETS…
My LIFE and EXAMPLES are my EFFECTIVE and TESTED TOOLS OF INSTRUCTIONS…

I have come a long way… Would you allow your precious youngsters to join me?

I look forward to receiving them LIVE in the CLASS of LIFE…

Do have an INSPIRED day.

Yours IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PRECIOUS AFRICAN CHILD, your Dearly Beloved Roving Public Interest Lawyer, Taiwo AKINLAMI