MUNA

Part 2 : THE CAMP

Because introverts are typically good listeners and, at least, have the appearance of calmness, we are attractive to emotionally needy people. Introverts, gratified that other people are initiating with them, can easily get caught in these exhausting and unsatisfying relationships.

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Muna's POV

It had been 21 days at the Osun state orientation camp and it was a thing of joy when the entire experience ended on a hot, sunny April morning.

It was a few hours after the Milwaukee Bucks demolished the New York Lakers at Abu Dhabi Stadium, kicking the Lakers butts with a gruesome score line of 190-125 baskets.

Muna knew this because she had earlier snuck to a good spot with great network service to stream the final quarter of the game on YouTube. Point guards always have fellow point guards as their favorites on the team and hers was Giannis.

Even though there was a mandatory assembly at which every corps member was to be present, Muna was m.i.a. all morning.

It had always been her nature to be a maverick at the most unsuspecting times but she had never missed a Bucks game, especially when Giannis, her favourite basketball player, was on the line-up. This was not going to be her first. She loved basketball. Besides Giannis Antetokuompo, she also loved Ja Morant, the late Kobe Bryant, Jason Tatum, KD, and the king of 3Ps, Stephen Curry. She rarely missed any games where these guys' teams were involved.

In her mind, she found her love for basketball after watching movies like Love and Basketball, Amateur, and Coach Carter.

She had often been told by random strangers that her height was great for basketball. It was.

Leaving the camp and all the memories made there was not so difficult for some people. The likes of Muna could care less about sad farewells and teary goodbye scenarios because she made very few friends or rather, she barely let anyone be friends with her.

Even the ones who seemed to be close friends of hers were going to lose contact with her. Not of their own doing but Muna's.

She wasn't one to check on friends or keep in touch with people, mostly because of her introverted nature, which seemed to be overshadowing the extrovert in her.

In her defence, she has had a terrible past with a friend she once thought would be her best friend, but that one did her strong thing.

In other words, she was never letting anyone have that much power to hurt her feelings again.

Friendships are stressful; talk less about relationships. Ha! She thought to herself as she watched people hugging and taking last-day-in-camp selfies.

She liked to describe herself as an antisocial extrovert. All through Muna's childhood and teen years, she had never had a best friend or anything of that sort. Well, almost.

An opportunity to mingle and bond with people had presented itself in this camp but she had not made the most of it. The window of opportunity was now closed, and it was time to go home.

She took her time, admired some of her favourite spots on the camp grounds and wondered if anyone had seen her when she snuck out of the hostel at night and hurriedly bathed behind the bathroom while everyone still slept.

She did this every day because of her awkwardness while bathing with an audience. Group baths were what everyone had here in camp but she wasn't cut out for all that nudity with strangers.