I am a Londoner, I am a New Yorker, I am a Berliner, I am a Nigerian. I have two passports, a Nigerian and an American one. Yet, these are not exclusively the places I have felt local to. Right now, I am a local in London. Here I have an extensive network of friends, I got my bike, I know my running route. I love big bustling cities and meeting lots of people. It’s amazing how you can interact with the most diverse set of people. I live in Whitechapel now and I love to read about historic facts about this region and about people who lived here 200 years ago. It’s fascinating. Sometimes I walk around in my neighbourhood and ask random people why they live here and what they like about it. When it comes to restrictions, I experienced three things: First, my work schedule is not as flexible as I wish, so if I go for a weekend to another city or another country, I have to come back at one point due to work. Second, when visiting nice places, I sometimes get the urge to stay as long as I can. Yet, due to permit restrictions I am not allowed to stay and need to leave within a certain amount of time. This happened to me in Berlin. I loved living there and I thought I would never leave. Eventually, I had to. Third, language sometimes works as a barrier. I am very interested in peoples’ lifestyles, but sometimes you cannot get to the same level of depth in a conversation due to language restrictions.

My parents left Nigeria to pursue better economic opportunities. Did it pay off? Hard to tell. What I can say however is that I now have a Nigerian worldview, an American worldview, a German worldview and a British worldview. That was certainly worth it.

– Okon