“…he got expelled for smoking weed.”
My sister explaining to a 12-year-old, me, why our landlord’s first son had been home more than usual. I knew cigarettes, every ruffian at our bus stop smoked those, but what was this weed that could get you expelled from school? I wondered but wasn’t particularly curious…yet.
*6–8 years later*
Summer holiday was close, my friends and i had left school for a shady beer spot which was frequented by shady people (which I obviously wasn’t), Selense it was called. I had no idea who named it that or why, but it really was a befitting name. It contained the cheap beer parlour essentials: Snooker table, plastic table and chairs, rugged-looking bartenders, red-eyed customers, and I kid you not folks, an actual bush.
The thing about this tale is, my friends still do not know this was my first time smoking. I had faced the Disciplinary Committee in my freshman year for smoking. I was innocent, of course, but everybody assumed. They always do.
Beer Bottles were ordered and my friend Michael (a.k.a the big fat chimney) “secured” igbeaux from one of the bartenders, and not long after, four terribly rolled joints lay before us. I picked up a joint with the confidence of an Allen Avenue hooker, and took a long drag of the igbeaux.
Moments later, three things became very clear:
- Not my eyes lol
2. Nollywood movies lied.
3. I definitely preferred smoking to drinking.
I didn’t have coughing fits as often depicted when newbies try smoking for the first time in those movies; in fact I must have looked like a seasoned stoner to my mates, and this rather pleased me.
The rest of that night is a vague memory, but that wasn’t the last time i visited Selense. I often wonder what 12-year-old me would think of my current relationship with marijuana.
