Insha’Allah🤲🏾

A Full Circle Moment.⭕🟡😌

Draw a three-sixty-degree line with your compass and your pencil firmly in place and you know what it forms? A circle. Not a semi-circle, but a full circle. You return to the exact point where you started from. The difference, however, is that the journey has taken you around, and in that process, you have grown, evolved, and gained perspective.

I experienced a full-circle moment when I travelled to Niger State. Come with me.

I recently travelled to Niger State after several years away ( about 15 years -ish) and the experience felt far more significant than I had expected. I stayed mostly in Lambata, but I also had the opportunity to visit Suleja, the place where so many memories of my early years began. The trip was not just about returning to a place I once lived; it felt like stepping back into an earlier chapter of my life and seeing it through completely different eyes. Suleja holds many memories for me, but one of the most meaningful things it represents is the first time I read the phrase Insha’Allah in a way that stayed with me.

One particular day, I was on my back from school, after the school bus had dropped me at the Stadium. Instead of waiting for my bikeman or taking a bike home, I decided to trek so I could save the transport fare. Along the way, I noticed a poster pasted on a wall. Out of curiosity, I stopped to read it. The poster had the phrase Insha’Allah written boldly, and underneath it was the meaning, which is ‘If Allah wills,’ or more simply, ‘by God’s Grace.’

When I first read those words years ago, I understood them only at a surface level, but the phrase never truly left me. As I have grown older, I have come to understand the depth of that expression and the humility behind it. It is a reminder that no matter how carefully we plan our lives, the future ultimately rests in God’s hands.

There is a teaching in the Bible (James 4:13-16) that reminds us not to speak boastfully about tomorrow. Instead of confidently saying we will do something tomorrow or become something in the future, we are to always acknowledge that it will happen only by God’s grace, if the Lord wills. The truth is that we do not know what tomorrow holds or whether we will even see it. Because of that, the simple phrase Insha’Allah has become something I carry with me in my daily life. It reminds me to hold my plans with humility and to recognize that every opportunity is ultimately granted by God.

Returning to Suleja after so many years felt deeply emotional. I realized quickly that while the place still held the same streets and familiar landmarks, I was no longer the same person who once lived there. I had grown, matured, and gained a deeper understanding of life and faith. Being back there allowed me to see things I had once taken for granted and appreciate them in ways I never could before.

Many childhood memories resurfaced during the visit. My grandmother and I used to trek from, Ore-ọfẹ side to the stadium, and sometimes all the way down to Babangida Market, and that path suddenly felt vivid again as I remembered those long walks together. The stadium itself holds another memory: it was the place where I would often wait for my school bus. At the time, it was simply part of my routine, but revisiting the area now made those small moments feel meaningful. At the time, those treks felt tiring, and adventurous (Grandma would always buy fan milk for me and I would take home for my siblings also, then it was sold for twenty naira😂), but looking back now, they were filled with simple joy and a sense of family that I appreciate much more today.

Image 1, is the picture of me, and the lovely Rhoda on the road. The rest are of me, when we went to the Babangida Market (days after). We passed by the Stadium and I was super excited.

I felt excited and nostalgic, happy to see familiar places again, but there was also a small moment of reflection. I realized that when I lived there, I never took the opportunity to learn another language besides Yoruba. Being surrounded by different cultures and languages now made me think about how much more I could have learnt if I had paid closer attention at the time. It reminded me that sometimes we only recognize the value of certain experiences long after they have passed.

One thought kept returning to my mind during this trip: sometimes we revisit places not because those places have changed, but because we have. When we return, we often notice differences and assume the environment is different, but many times the real change has happened within us. We have grown, evolved, and gained new perspectives, and because of that we begin to see familiar places with new eyes. The streets may remain the same, the buildings may still stand where they always did, but our understanding of them becomes deeper because we are no longer the same people who once walked through them.

For me, traveling to Niger State felt like a quiet full-circle moment. It was the place where I first encountered the phrase Insha’Allah, and now, years later, it is the place where I can truly say that I understand what it means. Life has a way of teaching us lessons slowly, often over many years. What once sounded like a simple phrase has now become a reminder I carry into everything I do—that tomorrow is never guaranteed, that our plans are always subject to God’s will, and that every step we take happens only by His grace.

Looking back on this journey, I feel grateful not just for the opportunity to travel, but for the reminder of how far life can bring us. Sometimes revisiting a place helps us recognize our own growth more clearly than anything else can.

Have you ever returned to a place from your past and realized that what changed the most was not the place itself, but you?