Yellow

Yellow is the colour I think about when I think of vomit (I don’t think of vomit a lot). But today, I was shocked to find that vomit can be of different colors.

The big yellow sun that has begun to shine upon our black heads in Nigeria has got to be some sort of punishment. As early as 10am, we all are already sweating and frying and being cranky. 

I threw up before my exams today. All throughout last night I was queasy; like a yellow rubber duck that found itself on the sea instead  of in a bathtub. I couldn’t read a thing and I listened to my two classmates/roommates throw intellectual principles at each other. ‘So what was the final decision in the Edokpolo case?’ ‘So  section 72 would apply now to all pre-incorporation contracts before sought to be ratified…’ I had no idea what they were saying. 

The sun today was not any different. I saw one girl who wore a yellow top but the top was made of a sort of material that is intolerant of moisture. And so I saw not just her top, but what she wore under her top. We Nigerians can no longer decide to buy random fabric, one has to sit down and ask, ‘How does this look with a bath of sweat?‘ 

In the exam hall, I was running out of my mind. I felt so nauseous and terrible that I completed my four questions in record time (I was probably the first to finish in the whole hall). But the yellow woman in front told me in her nasal accent, ‘You can’t submit now. If you need to throw up, you may be excused but you must come back and wait till the end of the exam’

All the yellow skinned people whose complexion stay true to them this combusting times are the real champs!

I threw up after my exams again today, but it’s not all bad. I learned that just as the body rejects some foods and throws them up just so it can feel better, there are some things or some people or some habits we have to automatically react to if they come into our lives; only then can we feel better – let the yellow sunlight in and dispel all darkness.

I have also learned from this big yellow sun that ‘the brighter,the  better’ is not necessarily an apt statement. Sometimes ask ‘Am I comfortable with this so-called bright person?’ 


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(I once wrote an ode to my yellow pen!

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