What Are Your Pet Peeves?
Musings about some of the things that irk the very bottom of my soul
Everyone has at least one thing that other people do but they don’t like. These are things that annoy or bother you so much, you just want to scream and shout, and maybe teach that person a thing or two. However, what may upset one person may be irrelevant to another person. Some people may not even get upset at some of the things others consider to be the most grievous. Such is life, right?
I have decided to bore you with some of the things I find absolutely annoying. I wonder if you would also find them annoying or if one or two are things that you can overlook.
People who cannot drive within the road markings
If there is anything that irks me the most in Lagos, my greatest pet peeve, it would be the fact that many people in Lagos cannot or will not just drive in a straight line, within the road markings. How hard can it be to situate your car within the white lines on either side of the road that clearly show you where your car should be? Why do people feel comfortable straddling two lanes while driving?
Did they not go to driving school and as such, have no idea of the purpose of the lines? Even if we assume this to be true, is it that these people have never for the life of themselves wondered what the purpose of the road markings is? Did they somehow imagine that the coloured lines are makeup for the road so it can slay like a slay mama? If they somehow think of it as this, wouldn’t it be stupid to drive over the lines thus denying the road the ability to slay?
Every time I see someone straddling the lines, I immediately think about how either stupid or selfish they are. I mean, if you choose to drive between two car lanes, doesn’t that immediately translate to needing a head check?
Having conversations with a raised voice
Many Nigerians are guilty of this. I am convinced that noise is our national soundtrack. I still need to understand why so many people feel the need to indirectly include other people in their conversations. Whether speaking with someone face-to-face or over the phone, the average Nigerian is bound to speak in several unnecessary decibels higher than required. Shouting comes easily to so many people, that they probably don’t even know how to whisper. Is shouting the result of a subliminal problem with being heard?
Throwing dirt around
I wonder how many times I have seen some silly creature throw a PET bottle or a biscuit wrapper out of a very expensive vehicle. One would assume that people who can spend so much on a car should have the basic medium of sense. Don’t people think about the negative impact of littering the environment? To make matters even worse, so many people are comfortably dumping huge bags of refuse by the roadside and into gutters, and then when the rains come with full force, they begin to wonder why the roads are flooded.
I thought I had seen all the stupid expressions of littering until I went to Obafemi Awolowo’s house a few weeks ago on a private tour. We were all served drinks and food which some consumed immediately and disposed of in the bins within the compound. The next thing, I saw this guy finish his bottle of water and just drop it on the floor! I was in shock, I had to tell him he was littering in a private residence and should pick up the bottle. Well, I guess his ignorance could not be salvaged because he didn’t bother to pick up the bottle.
Forwarding unverified information
Everyone who knows me to a certain degree knows that my response to the question: “is this true?” will most likely be “Google is your friend”. I believe that everyone owes it to themselves to be the first check of whatever information they come across. Why must a person abdicate their responsibility of fact-checking to other people? It simply means that they are probably very gullible because they are unlikely to do any further investigations if someone else assures them that what they have queried is true. Is it any wonder that we have people forwarding all sorts of ludicrous posts about people with three kidneys
Criticising everything but never taking action
Many of us are guilty of this, even I have been guilty on a few occasions. I find that it is so easy to dissect, analyse, and criticise issues/ people without taking one step towards doing anything about it. I see this from two perspectives. The first is people who don’t take action because they assume that they need to do something so grand that it seems impossible to accomplish by themselves. Whereas, all they really need to do is look for one small thing that we can do to influence change.
The second is people who are only wired to talk and talk, they do not plan to take any action at all. Their comfort is in speaking about the issue. Now, there is nothing wrong with speaking about issues but what exactly is the aim of all that speaking if you cannot motivate yourself and others to take some action?
Ignoring personal boundaries
What is it with people and being nosy parkers around these parts? You can meet someone for the first time and exchange a few words, and they immediately behave like they have full access to your life. Why do some people believe they have the right to ask people personal questions? I am convinced that many people behave this way because they are not good conversationalists or how else do we explain this inconsiderate behaviour?
Then some people are unnecessarily very touchy-feely with others. As far as I know, there is an unstated amount of time for which a hug or handshake should linger. Long enough to express your joy at seeing someone and short enough not to make the person uncomfortable. Of course, the timings would differ based on the level of relationship one has with the other person or their current state of mind. We need to be more discerning in watching out for social cues.
Displaying cultural illiteracy (or is it ignorance?)
A lot of people do not make the effort to learn about other cultures and they want to japa! I’m not even talking about foreign cultures o, just the ones we have in Nigeria. As little as spelling ethnic names properly, making the effort to pronounce names and words correctly, and displaying even minimal interest in other cultures. Aren’t people curious enough about other cultures? This is probably why many fights always end up with a tribal angle.
People will always irritate each other, that is a fact! We just need to learn to manage our interactions with others. Do we share similar pet peeves? What are your pet peeves? I’d like to know. I guess at the end of the day, we are all unique and we will all express ourselves in different ways because we are different people. This is the way I see things today.
