Dear Lagos,

I don’t know what it is about you that makes me want to do my best when I’m around you, to strive, to sweat, to give it my all.

I don't know what it is but I always seem to lose my mind trying to find my way around you.

I don't know what it is but it frustrates me, annoys me, stresses me that even with all the potential in me, there is nothing I can do with you.

Lagos, I have been around you all my life and I still don't know what to do or how to make it work, I just know that I am tired.

Maybe it is because I can’t just seem to see us working together, maybe it is something about the world we find ourselves in.

A world of no support where every man without a name must build one for himself or risk fading into the background noise of traffic and trailer horns on Eko bridge.

Lagos, we don’t seem to belong together but I know you are my home no matter where I go in the world.

My only hope is that someday I can come back and see you through the eyes of a tourist rather than that of a broke and frustrated youth.

Yours faithfully,

Adeolu.