Hey You
How’s it going? It’s been more than an age. I know I promised to write you more often but it’s been that kinda year for me. I don’t even know how to put it into words. It’s December 2021 and Covid-19 is still here, like really. I honestly wasn’t gonna write this till Zuch sent a message wondering why I hadn’t written anything this year. Twas a pleasant surprise as I didn’t think anyone would notice. Tbh, I have had some articles in my draft but I never got around to finishing them. Story of my year.
Faith
I remember when Pastor Shayo told me that I was going to be taking the sermon on a particular Sunday. I was terrified tbh but then another voice in my head was like but you’ve been prepared for this for a while, you’ve got this. It was amazing, anyways. God showed up big time. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous or anything. I just trusted God and He did it as usual. Twas one of my memorable moments of 2021.
On my road to self-discovery, I don’t even know who I fully am, it’s a constant unveiling through my relationship with God. But my confidence comes from the fact that Jesus, the creator of the heavens and earth, knows exactly who I am. New Wine by Hillsong Worship was a go-to this year. The lyrics, “So I yield to You into Your careful hands, When I trust You I don’t need to understand” are my favourite.
Family
Micky got married two weeks ago in Jos to a lovely soul. Jos was cold, very cold. Sadly, I couldn’t explore much as I was down with the flu and stayed in bed all the time. It was so bad that I was shivering in church on the wedding day. I did enjoy my time away with family in Jos. Our in-laws are the nicest people ever. They took good care of us. Our trip back to Lagos was a nightmare. We got to the airport at 5 pm only to discover that our luggage was on a different flight so we had to wait an extra 5 hours for that flight. I was too tired to even get angry.
Mama is also a graduate, whoop whoop. Who would have thought that my princess would grow so fast? So proud of the woman she’s becoming.
Psalmy went for service year in Ondo state. I think going away would do him a world of good. He can experience life from a different perspective. Hopefully, it would make him a better person.
Mum’s fitness goals this year has been astonishing. She’s lost a lot of weight and looks so much younger. She even inspired me to finally get my lazy ass back in the gym. I was pretty consistent 5 days a week, after work. Felt really good about my body and healthier.
Daphne gave birth to 4 adorable puppies on the 23rd of May. It was her first time and she did brilliantly. I remember waking up that Sunday morning to her labour screams. I missed the calculation and didn’t know she was due that day after all, she was playing as usual the previous day. By the time I ran downstairs, she had carefully placed all her pups in the litter box and had licked them clean. Such a proud dad moment. I eventually sold all, including Daphne and Beauty, my stubborn blacky who refused to mate.
Career
After 7 years and 2 months, I got to resign from A bank. Who knew that day would come? It’s something I had always looked forward to but it came and suddenly I was indifferent. I don’t know if it was the disappointment that I waited that long and didn’t do it earlier or the fact that almost everyone in my team resigned as well so it didn’t feel like such a milestone. I remember my plans to tattoo my resignation date on my left arm (I’ll definitely still do that).
Reward, I applied for a lot of jobs this year mehn and got a lot of rejections. I also turned down some offers. One of them almost had me relocating to Abuja. Changed my mind last minute, story for another day. We move.
The new place is sane. Glad to be away from the toxicity. I’m happier and in a good place, I guess. I know it’s not where I had hoped to be at this time of the year but everything happens for a reason like they say and I’m grateful for the little things.
Personal Growth
Sadly, I didn’t read as many books as I would have loved to in 2021 but I did listen to a lot of podcasts by Mike Todd, Anthony O’Neal and Katie Warmack just to name a few. For Men Only, For Women Only by Jeff and Shanti Feldhahn is one book I’m hoping to finish next month. I also did a lot of Twitter spaces this year. Contents varying from fpl, crypto, immigration, therapy, mindfulness, finance, fintech. The information gathered was overwhelming.
Like I mentioned earlier, I went to therapy just once this year. Ideally, I would have preferred to go quarterly but it is what it is.
I started an FPL podcast, yeah, I did that shit (The Empty Stands Podcast). Together with Ebuka, Bambam, Chuks, Albert and Ohis, we were able to garner about 1.9k listeners. I remember last year when we set up our vision and mission statements.
Vision: To be Nigeria’s first internationally recognized FPL podcast.
Mission: Creating a community that ignites the passion for football in our listeners by delivering quality analysis and insights as well as providing a platform for interactions and connections.
We were able to create an FPL league with 100 participants on short notice and had our first episode of the pod on Jan 9th. We went on to release 1721 minutes of content across 35 episodes. I must say, it has been a swell ride and I’m really excited for what the future holds.
Finances…. Nah, we ain’t gonna do this here.
By the way, I got my scrum product owner certification this year, thanks Ndukwe for the hours of study.
Mental Health
2021 has been tough, to say the least. From the pandemic ruining/delaying my career plans to work toxicity to addiction, it’s been a struggle. I really thought I’d be over this addiction by now. I was watching the final episode of Insecure the other day and Issa was talking to herself in the mirror as usual and said “I just want to fast forward to the part of my life where everything is okay”. That struck a chord and I had to pause and sigh. Dang, growth is messy. Growth is not sexy. Grateful for growth nonetheless.
I didn’t go for therapy as much as I would have loved to Reward. In fact, I think I went just once and it was amazing. My motto has always been, God reveals what He intends to heal and I’ll stick with it.
Dating
I intentionally stayed off romantic relationships this year as I felt I still wasn’t ready. Well, I went on some dates this year, coughs, just one actually. She was aiit, a product of a family friend’s matchmaking escapade. Remind me to turn them down immediately next time (I’m kidding). We went on a lunch date on a Sunday and it was nice to finally go on one after such a long time but I pretty much decided to cut it off before the date was over. Saw some red flags, just didn’t see us together and didn’t want to waste anybody’s time. The food was great btw. It wasn’t all doom and gloom as she was transiting jobs at the time and I helped in that process. That made me quite happy. I guess that’s why we really met.
Maybe it’s because I’m anti dating. I’ve always believed that basing one’s marriage off dating is like thinking you’ve read the whole book because you’ve seen the table of contents. In my opinion, dating does not prepare one for marriage, so what’s the point really? I still and probably will never understand what’s up with all them stages, talking stage et al. Stress.
Lately, I’ve had to ask myself this question, are you at a place where you’ll be okay with being single for the rest of your life? There’s this thought that I might be enjoying being single a tad too much to give relationships a chance. I wonder if that’s a thing. To be honest, I feel like it’s becoming too easy staying single. Should I be worried?
Relationships
The quality of one’s life is determined by the people around you. Whoever has your ear, has your faith.
In 2021, friendships were hard to come by due to the whole work from home ish. You know me, I’m a home buddy and I love staying indoors so I was fine with it. I made quite a few friends this year and they made the year worth it. Clement, you worried the heck out of me but I love you. Tobi, the IRCC minister himself, I love you too.
The games night crew wasn’t into it as we were last year. I guess life happens. We all switched jobs this year and I really don’t know what happened. Everyone’s good though.
Even as the year winds up, I want to leave you with these words of affirmation cos you’ll need them,
Reward;
You are loved
You are full of love
Your feet are beautiful
You’re like a mango tree giving off fruits
You will be an answer to someone’s prayers
xo
