Cranky Oldie- that’s what ya are!
As 2023 gathered her nuptial garment and raced for the new year, this was a marriage before the ceremony and so we, the in-laws sat and watched her race as we bid her farewell with a sigh hanging by the sides of our mouth, like a cigarette stick on edge to puff as the slightest inhale or exasperation.
Allow me to pillow my head solid, even though my head’s angled, as if to give a thorough, deep and intense gaze at the year before I can speak on the matter. In 2022, while I sat on the victory side, I “boasted” of my trials and tests and how it had made me stronger, I said this, digging my teeth into the juicy fruit of success and mentioned that I wanted more tests, I was intoxicated on 5Alive Pulpy!
You see, this year proved to me that my capacity can be stretched and that’s when I began to discover myself. I enjoyed last year’s successes for a little while, and then became weary of the status of my growth, and became hungry for growth beyond what I experienced and you know growth comes with learning, I cannot overstate the essence of learning, “the dirty work”, the grooming before the bloom. I told myself one day, that if I seek a higher position and compensation, my offerings should commensurate for my ask, or rather even supersede my ask, as long as I am in my grooming phase and I thought to myself, that learning was linear and hence I would swallow and absorb, eyes, mind and soul, knowledge that I encounter, yet again, the adventurous nature of tests makes it exhilarating, makes your blood boil, literally and figuratively.
This year, I made mistakes, mistakes, more mistakes and more mistakes that I never thought I could make, initially I didn’t realize that my grooming had taken a different turn, so rather than learn, I looked inward and fixed my gaze on the wrong things, till my growth became a mirage and of course, reclined into my cocoon, the need to recline into my cocoon became more endearing, I forgot storms were seasonal and seasons are temporal and temporal isn’t finite!
On some days, challenges were as sordid as my default frown, and my eyes thinned out in worry, my thoughts were constantly on a treadmill. But I’m grateful that I have been entrusted with this amount of growth, I am baffled at the trust, each project executed and the ones I had a part in, from Monsters’ BOTM, Port-Harcourt, Yabatech and the Grand Finale, Fireboy’s VVIP Party, Castle Lite In-bar Sampling Activation Phase 1 in three districts, Phase 2, five districts in Nigeria and DJ parties in five districts, Oui Capital Startup-cup 2.0, Schweppes Pet Bottle Launch, Chilean Party at La Tarvena, Stanbic IBTC End-of-the-year party, Coca-Cola Associates EOY, Kobo’s Pop-up shop and many more! This amount of growth is a gift that keeps on giving, tough I must add, but the Potter is always there to put you back together!
Before my pen’s weary of talking, let me share with you a few things I learnt in 2023:
1. Pick your flowers, enjoy it, and appreciate it, it is part of your journey.
2. Your work has your name on it, give it a 101%.
3. Love yourself enough to silence hate.
4. Love God deeply so when the storms come with howling sounds, your trust will rest in His Calm.
5. Save more than you spend ( an exclamation mark with a bombastic side-eye)!
6. Self-pity is not your friend, run!
7. Laugh at your mistakes.
8. Move on! If there’s one thing I learnt in this year is not to linger on dead and buried things, you waste a lot of emotions hanging there.
9. Love deeply and truly. Strive to be kind, not nice, anyone can be nice.
10. Do not apologize for being you, your kind is rare!
Once again, there’s a bun in the oven and it’s called “New Year”
