Wishes… what the hell are they? I’m not really a fan of wishes, because they only come into play when you want things that seem remotely impossible to achieve. That’s the difference between wants and wishes, when you want something, you know that there’s a possibility of you getting it within a set time frame. But when you wish for something, at that point, you’re making the wish, you know there’s no way you can get it.

Time may pass, and you may end up getting what you wished for, but when you look back and see the path that got you to that point, you’ll realize that there was no way you could have known that the wish could come to pass.

But then, there are also unrealistic wishes many of us can make, wishes we know at once that would never happen, but we make them all the same. I still don’t know why, probably because the idea of having those things actually feels good, so we can get lost in the wishes.

It’s wishes that make people daydream and fantasize to the point of getting lost in thought. When you wish for something, you think of how it would make you feel, how it would affect your life, and all the goodies that will come just because of that wish. Oh yeah, it feels good indeed.

So, if I had to make a wish that I was guaranteed would come true, what would that wish be? Honestly, there is only one thing I could wish for, and as we’re in the festive season, it’s going to be kind of impossible, especially in the coming days. And what do I want? I want all the roads to be free of traffic.

It looks simple and very possible, right? Well, relax and let me give you a bit of backstory. As you probably know, I live in Imo State, and unless it rains heavily, has severely bad roads, or there’s an accident, traffic in this state is generally mid and as such manageable. You can accurately predict your movement because you know how traffic works at any given time of the day.

I’m not saying that there is no traffic, I’m only saying that it’s hard for you to be stuck for hours in the same spot all in the name of a traffic jam! It doesn’t happen. At least during the year. Until the festive seasons every late December and early January!

You see, during this time, everyone in the diaspora comes home. People come from all over the country and the world at large to spend the holidays with their friends and family. This increases the number of cars and people on the road. Added to this, there will be frequent parties and enjoyments. All these will increase the traffic. But what takes it to the peak is the masquerade festival. Almost every village in Igbo land holds its own, and when they do, neighboring villages and towns will come out en masse to show support and enjoy in the festivities. Many times, it’s done on the road, and as you can guess, while it’s going on, the traffic all but comes to a screeching halt!

During this period, it’s not difficult to see people with cars use public transport so that once the traffic becomes unbearable, they’ll walk home. I once had to ditch the bus I was on and hike all the way to my village. However, it was not that bad because the festival was going on, so I was feasting my eyes and it distracted me from the fact that my legs were really working at full throttle.

As a result, going out in the East during this period has been hard for me. And by this time, I’m sure that the traffic would begin to pick up already. Just to go through a roundabout, you could spend twenty minutes. Then when you stop at a light, another twenty minutes would go by. And as the days go by, it only gets worse.

I promised myself to flex a little this season, and I had an opportunity to do just that with my guys two days ago. But I canceled. Not that I had anything meaningful to do, I just stayed home and watched the second season of Reacher which was only recently released. Just the idea of me going out and being stuck in traffic sucked all my energy away.

So now, do you understand why I want the roads free of traffic? I want to be able to go wherever I want without being stuck on the road. I’m not saying the festivals won’t hold, they will, but not in a way that will stump my movement. Maybe if I know that I can easily come and go in, it won’t be so hard for me to get out a little and have some fun as I’ve promised myself.

Anyway, the year is not over yet. There are still enough days in the year for me to have fun, and I’m planning to capitalize on that. Traffic or not. Since I made the promise to myself, I have to keep it. But it won’t be bad to see that wish come true though. That’s the one thing I would love.

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