APPRECIATION OF PAIN - by Catalyst ✍️

"What's joy without sorrow?" I kept asking myself while staring at the phrase on Tiktok, sudden sadness overwhelmed me, a pain I can't describe. It's a simple word, yet it feels complicated to understand.This brought memories from years ago, I had a friend from my street, he's the typical African boy with no worries, who find joy in every little thing. Laughs loudly, always playing football outside, making noise, that type of person you'd think sadness could never gets to.But one day, he vanished. Not physically but emotionally. I could still see him outside sometimes, but something about him had changed, the laughter has reduced, that African boy energy now shallow. Even his smile looked fake.Later, I heard his father died, "RIP SIR".Suddenly, everything started making sense, the meaning behind the cold African boy, a grief we noticed but couldn't define. Weeks passed, months, maybe 3 I think. Then he had started playing again with us, we were laughing over something silly, proper laughing. The kind that makes you lose composure and steeze.It was confusing then, how he shift from being a voiceless sound to a voiced sound was confusing, but now? I understand the transition.Sometimes, people who have seen sorrow appreciate joy differently.To some of you, happiness is normal. To myself and 99 others "happiness is survival". That's why two people can experience the same thing, but have different interpretation of it.When a man sees rain and complains, another see the the same and thank God because heat nearly roasted him alive all week especially when you are a student of Fuoye. One person sees food and complains of repeating the same food all week. And another will see that same food and feels relief.Your situation builds your experience.I guess that's why life isn't biased and makes us feel both joy and sorrow. But to me I feel it has been biased to many of us and made us feel one side so far, especially the sour side.But I believe we are facing this to learn how to appreciate the good side of life when it comes. Because how can we appreciate joy when it arrives without understanding what sorrow is? Or can can explain success when we've never experienced failure? How do we explain healing if we've not been bruised by life? Now, I understand what Mom meant by "Enjoy these moments because they are part of what will be documented in my success story". Catalyst ✍️

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