First off, I don’t know where all the time went.

One day I am twenty-one in Ibadan as a young undergraduate, looking to the future and what it might bring. Then I wake up and it’s already forty. Where did all that time go?

It’s either the earth is moving faster around the sun than I remember, or the days have just been filled with so much adventure than it’s hard to keep track of.

I started this blog in 2009 when I was barely 28. Even that was supposed to be a short experiment. But here I am twelve years later. Even that time has gone by quicker than I can say WordPress, and all the travel books I’d planned to write from my blogs remain in drafts and proposals.

Last week, I completed the manuscript of my third book, a biography of Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) first Nobel Prizewinner in Literature, Wọlé Ṣóyínká. The editor is looking at it. It is one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever worked on, but I’m happy I have completed it before the 40+ years begin.

My second book, a translated collection of poetry titled Ìgbà Èwe was published last July. It’s now available worldwide via Amazon, Amazon UK, eBay and bookstores in Nigeria.

So what does it feel like to have hit the big 4-0? I can’t tell you that it feels different, or that it doesn’t.

One, however, feels a renewed sense of urgency about things one cares about. For instance, I want to write more books, and I want to visit more places. I want to do more things that bring me joy. I want to create great art and literature.

Two weeks ago, I went with family to visit Addis Ababa and Nairobi, the former for the first time. It was great to once again discover how big the continent is, and the tremendous breadth of colour each new experience of humanity brings on one’s own perception of the world and one’s place in it. Both places changed and renewed me.

So here’s to more of such new and varied experiences as the forties begin.

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Photo taken at Giraffe Manor, Nairobi.