Sometimes Growing Up isnt all That...

I hate being an adult sometimes.

I miss the carefree days of my 'youth' when the most important thing in my life was getting to the next AIESEC conference or asking out that gorgeous girl in my class.

Now the inescapable facts of adult life like bills, taxes, career-path, family responsibility all want to suck one down into that cliched but true phenomenom called the rat-race.

You also have to deal with death differently.

My friend Tokunbo Dawodu died last week.

I guess you could say I have been lucky that growing up I never had to deal with the death of a close family member or friend. And even when you are a child and someone dies, there are a lot of coping mechanisms available, "She's gone to be with the angels".

I met Tokunbo some 11 years ago when we were in University together. He was a member of AIESEC and together with Kwesi was one of those I looked up to when it came to the art of chasing girls. I remember him joking that he never drank alcohol because a civil war was liable to erupt if he ever got drunk and started spewing the names of the girls he had been involved with.

You would think he was quite well hated for being such a play-boy but the opposite was the case. They all seemed to love him just the same. Perhaps some of it came from his unpretentious nature and his wide smile must have gotten him out of trouble more times than he would care to count.

And to have such a fantastic human being drop dead for no apparent reason makes me wonder what its all about. No parent should have to bury a child and my thoughts go out to his dear mother. I am having trouble making rational sense of it all and this is just me, I do not want to imagine what that is like for his mum.

I will always remember the bus trip we took together from Ibadan to Kano to attend the AIESEC conference. We joined the AIESEC Ife group and it took all of 15hours. The romance and togetherness shown between you and your then girlfriend was a delight to watch on that trip. And it set the standard for the sort of relationship I wanted to have after that.

Tokunbo was a gentleman and always fun to be with. And I do not say this because he is dead now. He really was. A trained lawyer and resident of the greater Manchester area, Tokunbo will be sorely missed by a whole lot people chief among them, me.

Wherever you are now Tokunbo, I hope its a better place and I hope we meet again someday. Adieu my friend