We all have our pasts and though in some areas our pasts may be as different as can be , in some other ways, we may share similar pasts. Some of us might have reasons to smile when we remember the past, whilst other have no cause to. Some give no details about their pasts while some others may change their pasts to suit the present. It isn’t always easy to tell what a person’s past was just by looking at them.

In his pasts, he might have led a gang of robbers who left a trial of sorrow as they went about their businesses. He got caught, went to jail and came out a changed man. Or did he? In her past, she might have been captured and force to work as a sex slave. She never wanted to do any of the things she did but she felt she had no choice. She wanted to survive.

Some would say that they would rather have died than have such ‘close relationship’ with the enemy; she should have taken her own life instead and maybe taken the life of one of soldiers too, if possible. Wouldn’t that be sinning against God, some might ask? Oh yes, maybe, but who am I kidding? For most people, because he is not there to plead his case we tend to ahead and do want we want anyway.

The issue is not the things she did to survive; it is after going through all she did, do we have aright to condemn her? And does the fact that one makes mistakes in the past mean that one will never change? Who can determine what from the past we will take into or perhaps to change in the future?

Some people are able to triumph over great challenges which will ruin others. I know of two brothers who responded differently to the challenge of their father leaving them. While one is industrious and excels academically, the other has taken petty scams. Ironically, both of them say they are where they are today because their father walked out on them.

Most times, during challenging periods of our life, we need to constantly remind ourselves that ‘this too will pass’. We also need to know that whatever fate throws at us, we have the power to overcome. As Nigerians, we share a collective past and have been through much in the past few decades. But after it all, we must never forget the lessons learned from the experiences had; and then, perhaps we may not need to go through it all over again.