Bare in Locs and Words

I grew up being silent. I was born in a time and at a place where the words that held sway were the words of men. Women of my culture had learned to maximize the limited number of important words that would be heard. In such an environment, the words of a child meant nothing. They were akin to the whining sounds of mosquitoes on a hot, African night. An angry flick of the wrist or the thunderous clap of both hands and the mosquito was squashed never to whine again.

Silent children became silent adults. So, I learned to think and decide within. My mind became my sounding board. To keep my mind free of the noise and chaos of life, I tried not to think about unimportant decisions for too long. Living in the West has somewhat liberated my tongue, albeit to very, very few people who I consider somewhat interesting and trustworthy. I moved to a new city two years ago and joined a gym closest to my residence. Over a very short time, I realized there were a few issues with this gym. For one, in comparison to my former gym in my old city, this gym is quite small. By virtue of its small size, it has very few equipment and space to withstand the peak times that begin at 5pm. Added to this are the unisex washrooms. I’ll spare you the gory details but it became apparent that the washrooms are a no-go area for me. The worst of it all are the odours that never left. However, for two years, I stayed put at the gym inhaling the odours, whilst my nose remained wrinkled throughout my workouts.

Last week, while having a friendly conversation with a colleague, the topic of working out came up and somehow, my tongue loosened itself enough to express my frustration with my gym. I had become so uncomfortable with my gym that I was beginning to miss gym sessions. In speaking to my colleague, I questioned myself, out loud, on why I remained at a gym, where I paid my hard earned money, and I had come to hate it. Since my tongue was a roll, I expressly said ‘I am done. I will end my membership and find another gym‘. I could hardly wait for the close of business. Once in my car, I drove to a gym that I had been eyeing for a while. This new gym is HUGE, fully equipped, spacious, and most importantly, has separate male and female washrooms plus other amenities.

I guess speaking out does help because a break-up never felt so good!