Nineteen

The Pride of any man should be in his Legacy, I have lived life with goal and that goal is to see that those that come after me improve on my work and eventually out do me.
My cousin Gerald Ibe is one of such men that have studied my life and improved on my lifestyle and choices.
He just turned 19 and unlike many 19 year olds he has decided to celebrate his life with a verse .
I am proud to bring to you all “19” by Gerald Ibe

19

“What can I say About who I Am ?

You know that saying, it is not how long you live but how well you live. I recommend we all take it more seriously. So on my 19th birthday, I take this time to celebrate myself. My perfections my flaws, my friends, my enemies, my accomplishments, my would haves, should haves, could haves and all that good stuff.

You know that saying, live life with no regrets. I recommend that we take it less seriously. I propose a revision to this narrative. Live life so your regrets won’t matter. For some reason I think regrets are inevitable to us humans.

So what exactly am I saying here? In all honesty, I am not too sure myself, but on this day that I become important all of a sudden, I really want to say something that matters.

My soul was born more than 13billiion years ago, I was wherever souls stay doing whatever souls do until April 6th 1995 the birth of this child was forever going to alter the fate of the world. These 19 years I have been gently shepherded by my parents, my family, my phenomenal teachers and mentors, my friends and well-wishers and to you all as you celebrate me this day, I am prodigiously humbled and ecstatically grateful.
But as you celebrate me, I ask you celebrate the man you have made in his entirety. I ask that this day, you acknowledge my humanity and see who I am through an untainted conscience. I ask you acknowledge my gifts, my curses, my accomplishments, my success and all my broken promises. Acknowledge every time I made you leap for joy, and every time I broke your heart.

Let your conscience dwell on all these things that make me the individual I am .Let this day be the day we remember that I, that we, are human beings capable of all things and maybe through this we can celebrate each other with more sincerity.

I am trying to live a life worth dying for so when I look back at things I may regret, they will be but chaff floating in the wind.

I like to think a man’s quality of life should not be judged by the number on his birth certificate. So if I don’t tell you my age, it is me telling you to look at me with no preconceived expectations, no socially constructed narratives of what 19 year olds should and should not be or have accomplished, and don’t say “wow ,you are so … for your age” . The only barrier I recognize is death.

(my grandmother’s voice playing in the background…..”we soon have to find a wife for you ooo , but before that, your iwakwa/ traditional Igbo coming of age ceremony” ) lol

And when it is all over, I want them to look back at me and say, he gave to all like he owned everything, he loved the same way he breathed, he was kind beyond measure, although he was sometimes a cocky jerk, but he never told us his age.”

Gerald I leave you with this wise Saying “Don’t worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right.- Bob Marley”
Happy birthday Bro