The Nigerian talking stage is not a phase; it is an endurance sport. It lasts six months. A year. Sometimes two years. You are not dating. You are not single. You are "talking." You know their favorite color. Their mother's name. Their childhood trauma. But you don't know your label. The ambiguity is cultural. You can't rush into dating. You must "know" each other. But the knowing never ends. The stage becomes a lifestyle. You attend weddings together but "we're just friends." You buy each other gifts but "we're not official." You argue like a couple but "we never said we were exclusive." And the fear! Defining the relationship is scary. What if they say no? What if the talking was just talking? So you stay in the stage, hungry for clarity but afraid to ask. How long was your longest talking stage? And did it we qever become a relationship, or did it die from exhaustion?
