I hardly have dreams when I sleep. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. Whichever it is, I tend to take the dreams I remember very seriously since I don’t get a lot of them. There was this particular dream I had when I was 15 years old and I was about to complete my A’ levels. I cannot remember all the details of that dream but I remember the end quite vividly.
Here it is – I was standing outside crying (I can’t remember why I was crying) and a young woman who resembled my aunt came to meet me. She touched my shoulder and asked me to look at the sky. She said, “Adedoyin, can you see the sky up there? As long as the sky always remains up there, there will always be hope. You will always have a way out.”
For years, that statement never left my subconscious. There is always a way out. There will always be hope. Sadly, I did not remember to apply that nugget of wisdom where it mattered most. When the supposed love of my life broke up with me in my first year, I should not have shed tears like the whole world was coming to an end. I should have realised that the pain was temporary. I should have realised that it was for my good that the relationship ended. I should have known that soon enough things would get better. When things went really bad between my mother and I, I shouldn’t have believed that it was impossible for our relationship to be mended. I shouldn’t have given in to fate, thinking the tumultuous relationship was meant to be. I should have known that there was hope ahead that things would be more blissful between us.
What have you given up on? What is that situation that has made you lose hope? Kindly listen. There is always a way out. I’m not saying this because some woman in a dream told me so. I’m saying this because I know so. No matter how dark the night is, joy always comes in the morning. The times in my life that I considered to be the worst make me laugh today. I moved past the point I thought I could never reach. Where I am today, there was a time that I thought I could never get here. I never believed I could rise again when I fell flat on my face. But I did rise and I am still soaring.
Bumps and potholes are to be expected as you go on your journey in life. You will fall down flat. You will face great obstacles. But do you know what? You will always come out victorious. That fall won’t kill you. It will only make you better. That setback does not mean that you have been defeated permanently. It just means that you need to gather more strength and push harder. Many of us dread pain but I believe there is a unique type of strength that comes from pain. When you choose to still hold on to that dream despite the challenges and pain, you are setting yourself up for a great victory. You get this surge of energy that keeps you going till you cross the finish line.
Don’t beat yourself up when you fall. Just look up. Look to the sky. Look to the source of all answers; God. He is only one who can bring you out from sinking sand and place you on a solid rock where you can never be moved. Isn’t that awesome? I have learnt to keep hope alive even when things look really terrible. You should too. Never forget that there is always a way out. If you are down right now, I expect you to get up and keep going. You will get to your expected end.
About the Writer: Adedoyin Jaiyesimi is a Writer, Media Content Creator and Brand Manager. The various publications she has written for include Y! Magazine (now Y! Africa), Discovery, Pride Magazine Nigeria, Butterscotch magazine amongst others. She currently holds the position of Brand Communications Manager at Victor Adeyemi Ministries and she is also the founder of LRouge Media, an editorial and brand consultancy company which provides content writing and editing services for business websites, magazines and blogs. When she is not creating content, you can find her in church doing the work of her Father. She tweets @msdoyeen and blogs at
www.adedoyinjaiyesimi.wordpress.com .
