This evening we are starting Me Time Monday off with a stunning piece written by Maria Diego, about a young girl in Ghana and her journey to understanding the importance of here and now, and learning to love spending time to herself.
My name is Afreyea, I am 14 years old and I live in a small hometown in Ghana. There aren’t many things to be done around here, especially during summer as I don’t get to see my friends as much as I used to. The beginning of the month has been a little bit tough because I missed my friends, my teachers and all the things we get to do at school. We played sports every day and we had lunch together. Each day was a new adventure and I had so much fun. Now mom and dad work from the first ray of sun in the morning until the moon salutes us all and I have to eat by myself because I don’t have brothers or sisters. I am alone all day long and it is really hot so this summer is not being as fun as I was expecting it to be. I had been lying in bed dreaming about all the things I would like to do. Young people from other parts of the world spend their holidays chatting through their phone, playing games with it or travelling somewhere else. I know we cannot afford that so I decided to shake my thoughts out and walk down the long stony path that leads to the beach on the south side of the town the other day. Mom and dad used to be afraid of me getting too close to it but now that I am older I feel the world is mine and I love getting my feet in contact with salt water or refreshing my gold body under the crystalline water. It is so peaceful it calms my mind in one second. Now I spend my days there until the sun sets and it has become my favourite part of the day. On Monday, while I was sunbathing, I imagined some pirates docking in our pier looking out for a hidden treasure that was buried five hundred years ago in our coast. I wrote the story down and showed it to my parents at night. I told them I helped the pirates find it and as a present for my help, they gave their rum to my dad. I took an empty plastic bottle and gave it to him. He pretended it was actually a Captain Morgan bottle and both congratulated me on the story. The next day, I gave my mom a necklace I built with shells. I told her some mermaids made it for her, which made her laugh. She smiled and thanked me for the gift. We all knew something so fantastic could not happen there but playing with those ideas in my mind has made the days fly by and I have been having so much fun. On Thursday, mom and dad bought me a new notebook. “Now you can write all your stories there. One day, they may become books”, they said. I was watching the sunset today and asked the sky to grant me that wish. One day maybe they will, but for now, I am finally loving how to spend time by myself.
- Maria Diego
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