Skip to main content

2018: The good, hard and the bubbly.

"The importance of getting older is wisdom"
As heard from the rapper Vblaiz

In some hours the year would end and we'll all jump into 2019. Not surprisingly just as the year ends I'll turn a year older. What have I learned this year? Here are some of the lessons and experiences this year and I'll start with the bad ones.

This year someone I really cared about made a bad choice. A teenager getting pregnant is not really a cool thing, not under any circumstance. This incident really hurt me and I felt as though it was my fault somehow. It took a while before I had some relief. I never got to talk to her through all of it, yet the guilt was severe. I can't really think of any lesson here yet, maybe the lesson I should take home is this "what is not my fault is not my fault".

This year I relocated to Jos on a semi-permanent basis. I learned what it meant to live in a divided city ravaged by conflict and hatred from my stay there. I realized that when there's no peace there's little you can do, and there's no peace without justice. I hope to write extensively on my experience in Jos someday.

It was this year I had what I suspected was a heartbreak. I had terrible night. I can't afford another one biko.

Now the good stuff I did or learned this year:
I made new friends in the course of my program. I learned to enjoy the simplicity of life. I also read the profound wisdom of Mark Manson as solemnly espoused in the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F.

I had always underestimated myself. I actually rate myself high but there were a lot of things I thought were out of my reach.
Case in point, someone called me to ask me to help his relation get admission. I thought 'this guy must be high or something, I'm the wrongest person to ask this'. Some days later I enter a place and lo and behold they were collating admissions and i thought 'omg look where I am'. Unfortunately the relation in question had terrible grades.

On another occasion, I applied for a scholarship to please someone, I was surprised to find that I was subsequently invited to the interview. I didn't get the scholarship, but it helped readjust my mentality.

Oh, and this year I realized I had school children. It was a very pleasant realization as I didn't remember being anybody's school dad in my school days. 9 years later, I'm school daddy to several boys and girls.

One of the biggest lessons of the year is to bear with people and understand their struggles. Not judging people harshly but rather helping them become better people.

Some of my clearer realizations are enumerated below.
1. You may think some people have forgotten you but you are just being ignored.
2. You may think you are ignored but you are just forgotten (sadly).
3. Misjudging which of the two is being meted unto you is a sad thing.
4. Not knowing which exactly is being meted to you is the worst.

This year has been good, it has also been hard no doubt but it was also bubbly. What I'm taking into the new year is more bravery, and aiming for the top. We shooting our shots way out of our league. Not at the duchess but at the Queen. We are covering all bases and moving forward.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Opportune Time

 I’ve always been fascinated by the concepts of chronos and kairos . Chronos refers to time that passes in a sequential, linear manner, while kairos is the opportune moment for something to happen. Many speakers and writers have shared a lot about this topic, and I’ve learned so much from them. From my personal experience, I’ve seen how missing these opportune moments can have a serious impact. The lessons I’ve learned are: You may never know when the opportune moment will come, so prepare yourself well. The opportune moment often comes in disguise, so always be on your best behaviour. Don’t make decisions lightly or carelessly. If you miss the moment once, learn from it and don’t repeat the same mistake. In conclusion, kairos can change the course of your life, but only if you’re ready for it. Time waits for no one, and the opportunities we’re given don’t always announce themselves. So, stay alert, work hard, and be prepared to seize that moment when it comes. Take action toda...
Post a Comment
Read more

Audu and the Interesting Tale of 12 Mudus of Rice

The events detailed below were as told to me by Audu. I met Audu when I boarded his bus from Nasarawa Eggon to Lafia sometime this year. "God is always on the side of the Righteous" Audu declared as he shifted gears. "Let me give you a story to buttress my point" he added. I knew an interesting story was about to be spilled so I leaned back on my seat and turned my face towards him. A certain woman in Lafia had given Audu a bag containing rice to deliver to her sister in Nasarawa Eggon. She had paid him and had given Audu her sister's phone number so he could call when he arrived at Nasarawa Eggon. The journey between Nasarawa Eggon and Lafia is short. At most it takes 20 minutes, Reckless drivers do the trip in 12.  Upon arrival, Audu called the recipient and then arranged to meet. He then proceeded to get some rest, the recipient of the rice was going to come and meet him as he rested from his labors. Not long afterward a woman came and asked for the rice that...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nigerian banks: So much hype, so little groundwork.

This events chronicled herein truly occurred as the world spun past this morning. Today I took it upon myself to pay up all individuals and groups I was indebted to. This involved visiting three big time Nigerian banks. These transactions which could have simply been carried out with my PC, had to be done the old school way because online transactions are not common (no one I know has ever used the system), hence it could n''t be trusted. Aside the long queues and the ages it took to get served, these banks are are quite in contrast with what you'd see in the slick adverts on CNN or NTA (Nigerian Banks do ads on CNN). The staff are not that friendly, and you can waste a lot of productive time just waiting for your turn ( I kill time watching TV whenever I visit a bank) In one of the Banks I visited, (this bank boasts of ''Pan- African ess'' ) the bulk room where I went to pay in money was desecrated with graffiti on the side boards. Yes! Graffiti, scr...
1 comment
Read more