The Thing Living in Me That I Never Asked For

I never knew I was cultural until one day I saw myself doing one of the things that my mom has always told me to do, even though I usually see my parents do it too. But this time, I did it effortlessly without even thinking or trying. I was in one of these big social gatherings; it's been a while, though.

When I saw some elders walk in, my body lowered itself before my mind even processed the decision. Also, my knee bent. My voice dropped. And when I sat down, I said to my inner self, How come I wasn't taught that specifically?. It just happened. And even till now, I still do it, and when I meet someone, my head bows without even processing it.

Maybe because I grew up in a Yorùbá land, and that is why I now see being cultural as something I must announce. It is in me, and it has been correcting me in some ways when I even try to step away from it.

When you tend to eat with a left eye in a gathering, the weight of eyes is set on you. When I skip to greet some people sometimes, it always feels like I have done something wrong. And this is because it is already in me; it lives in me and is not a pressure from the outside.

In the past, my opinion of the modern world was dropping all those old cultures behind me. But I was wrong. Though the culture never left me, it just stayed silent because of my environment back then.

And now that I am maturing every day, I have now gotten to know that what I once referred to as tradition is nothing but wisdom that arrived before I was even prepared for it. My culture has taught me a lot of useful things today.

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