Here’s why I’m not spending the night…
In life, there are a number of bad situations that you can find yourself in, but there is none more awkward than waking up long after your host woke up.
I had just completed my secondary school education, and as I waited to join college, it was decided that I study ‘computer packages’. Everyone studied those at the time, and I remember that cyber cafes were a thriving business since not many people owned desk top computers, leave alone laptops or smart phones.
Anyway, the relatives that were to host me lived not far from the ‘computer college’ I was to join, so it made sense to move in with them for the few weeks the course would take, rather than commute daily to the school. The arrangement was not only convenient, my parents did not have to worry where my bus fare would come from.
Needless to say, I overslept on my first night there. You see, having just completed secondary school, I suddenly found myself with lots of time in my hands and no structure to adhere to, therefore on most days, I slept late and then slept in the next day, sometimes getting up in the afternoon and generally spending the rest of the day not building the nation.
By the time I got up, everyone in the house had been up for hours. The two children had long gone to school - if you’re a parent, you are conversant with the elaborate process involved in getting children ready for school, and if the children are young, it can be a very noisy process, yet I was dead to it all. How embarrassing.
Their mother, who owned a business, had already prepared breakfast, washed the dishes, tidied up the house and was just hanging the clothes when I finally got up. Never have I been so embarrassed. She didn’t say or do anything to shame me, but I’d imagine that she believed I was the lazy type, and cursed herself for agreeing to host me.
I have to say that the month that I lived there must have been the most difficult and uncomfortable in my entire life. Determined to redeem my image, I barely slept, lest I overslept, and would jump out of bed immediately I heard my host’s bedroom door creak open at 5am on the dot. Don’t get me wrong, my host was gracious and kind during my stay there, but I can confidently say that nothing beats home, whatever home is to you. You have the luxury to be lazy, grumpy, a general mess and even to be a disappointment to those you live with because it is not as if they will throw you out. They are stuck with you no matter what.
Anyway, that experience stuck with me such that to this day, I cannot bring myself to spend a night in other people’s homes, even close friends, even though I think that my introverted nature also has something to do with it. Another awkward situation to find yourself in is visiting and then waking up before the hosts, especially if you are not particularly close to them. They could be relatives of a friend you accompanied, or friends of friends. You get the idea.
You end up sitting there, getting uncomfortable by the minute and wondering what to do with yourself. You possibly couldn’t make them breakfast because you have no idea what they planned to have, or the amount of food they prepare and the ingredients they use. Or if they eat breakfast at all or are fasting. And you certainly cannot take the liberty of making yourself breakfast.
Also, any way you look at it, it would be strange to start cleaning the place, and it would not be appropriate to curl up on the sofa and watch TV, especially in this era of the internet – you might watch something that your hosts frown on, or maybe as a rule, they don’t watch TV in the morning. With all this awkwardness in mind, no thank you, I won’t spend the night…
