Day 1: Oluwatobi Akangbe

And the reflections begin…
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2014!!! Indeed it has been  an amazing year for me, at its start, I barely had time to think of the year as a whole because I had my 500 level professionals staring right at me and so that occupied the centre of my attention and had a centripetal effect on my entire thought process. Well, at the time we began the year and the general overseer of the church I attend instructed the entire Christian body to fast for a 100 days or not eat at all for 30 days. Before now I used to fast regularly but had never attempted such length but of cause I had to do it also keeping in mind that a lot of people would be discouraged if they knew I wasn’t as well as the fact that it was a spiritual instruction. So I started the 100 day journey and by day 15 I felt it was too routine and it wasn’t given me the “fasting effect” any more, so I decided to go 30 days straight without eating (remember I was supposed to be reading for a professional exam at the time). So I began the 30 days without food, I only took some juice in the evenings when I felt really weak but took nothing solid. I progressively felt weaker and practically wasn’t able to read for the exams but I went on with the fast and trusted God. In about two weeks I had lost about 12kg of weight and all my trousers were falling off my waist but I continued. To cut the long story short, it was finally day 29 and I could barely talk cos I was so weak and so my mum who knew I was fasting kept calling me and warning me not to eat anything solid after I break the fast cos my system wouldn’t be used to food anymore and I told her I heard. Day 30 finally came and so I broke the fast with apples and banana at past 12am on the 31st day. But disobeying previous warnings, I ate plantain and egg then indomie later that evening. I had landed myself in trouble, I spent the next 3days vomiting and stooling. I finally recovered the fourth day and started eating slowly……. It was 14days to the professional exam and I was practically unprepared. But then I asked God to help me and He did, the summary of His help is I had my  first distinction in medical/dental school in that exam(sparing you the details of how I knew what to read without being told by any human and how I assimilated at the speed of light).

I had amazing moments. I had a big party for my birthday which I thought I shouldn’t celebrate until the evening 2 days before. As a final year student of dental surgery it’s a really stressful one coupled with the fact that I was made the group leader of 6 for a research/project, but in all, God has kept me cool and calm.

It has been a year that I really missed my twin sister, she graduated and traveled out of the country and so I have barely seen her and she has been there since mid year and wont be back until January next year (I miss her *tears*).

The major challenge I experienced this year was time management as there was so much to do that I barely had time for myself. Other challenges were management of my finances, keeping up appointments with God and personal development and capacity building which I overcame towards the end of the year.

Another funny thing was how I joined twitter and had a lot to share and kept switching my handle because I wasn’t just satisfied. It went from @tota4ng to @itztee_a to @itzteea and finally got the one I like @TheOluwatobi yup yup that’s about it.

For 2015, what I look forward to the most is my induction as a Doctor/Dentist. I really cannot wait.

Overall, I am so grateful to God for His faithfulness and love towards me knowing fully and well that I do not deserve such love.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas in advance…..