North to Paradise

by Ousman Umar

One of the saddest things I learned on my journey is that in this life, no one gives you anything for free. They always want something in exchange: it’s human nature. Or at least, it’s the nature of the system that humans live in.

At that point, after so much hardship, I felt that life had no value whatsoever. In the whole world, there’s just you and the two options before you: reach Paradise alive, or die. There is no other choice.

Given all the hardship I’ve experienced, it would be easy to think that the world is full of bad people, but I prefer to think that most people are good. It’s just that the good people make less noise.