DAY 30: NDIGWE IFEOMA

Sweet friend and creative partner! 😀
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When I was asked what I was thankful for this year, I thought I should refer to my “what I want for this year list” made at the beginning of the year. The first thing on it was;
Please God, let no one die. Grandparents, I understand the need to hasten journey to afterlife but I would have you wait till I’m equipped to handle it and no, 21 is not old enough. No one came to me on the eve of my 21st, waved a wand and then said “you are now old enough to handle well… everything. Parents-DO NOT EVEN THINK OF DEATH FOR AT LEAST 30yrs strike thoughts of heavenly bliss from mind. Age is yet advanced for such fearsome thoughts.
It was just anticlimactic from there but I’m thankful no one died on me. My parents’ cousins died but my policy is if I’ve seen you less than ten times in my life, you can’t have died on me. So thank God for huge blessings.

I’m thankful for my new cousins (the twin set) though one of them hates me. (I can hear you Aunty but no one is too young to hate anyone, ask your son).

FRIENDS
I’m thankful for all my friends; old and new ones. For the 7 under-23 friends of mine who got married this year: just piling on the pressure for no important cause. I hope my mom forgets your names. I still love you but stay away from my family house. Come to school and we’ll have fun.
For my 20 under-23 friends who don’t want to get married YET. I’m thankful for kindred spirits.

ART
I’m thankful for the boy who read my poem in his school; for your sake, I hope they really did clap otherwise, it’s your head in the toilet.
For artists whose talent inebriated my senses this year:
Hearing – Music, spoken word poets (Sarah Kay, Shane Koyczan)
Sight – arts, movies
Taste – Cuisine (so far, it’s just KFC and Chicken republic).
Smell – Well bite me, uptight bourgeois people with exotic perfumes.
Touch – Okay.

I am thankful for the people who made me feel good this year by making me laugh, or doing something so guileless and kind or making me feel beautiful. It might have been a simple an instagram like or ‘you look pretty’.
It might have been a complete  lie like ‘you’re a doll’  (I’m no doll, I’m 5ft9, no one would ever truly describe me as a doll) or ‘in that picture, you look a little like Tyra’ (I do not look like Tyra. My MOTHER knows I do not like Tyra. She’d say it too if you asked and she’s genetically required to lie to me on matters like that but thanks for the thought). A simple ‘you look beautiful’ would have sufficed but I love y’all despite.

I’m thankful for God, everyone, everything and finally I’m thankful for ME, what I now know and what I’ve done.

CHALLENGES
I don’t know if I had any major challenge this year. Every year in the recent past has been like someone was punishing me for pooping in church or something just as bad but this year was a cakewalk compared to last year.

My biggest challenge this year was my project. Community health is a branch of medicine that I cannot do. The project was hard and is still kicking my behind. It was like travelling to a place with a different, difficult language. WITHOUT A DICTIONARY!!!

Moving to a new room was another challenge. When we saw our room pre-moving in, it was a disappointment at the least and at worst, a disaster. There were at least 10 species of living things in my room none of which were human. Not even the nasty girl who was nice to us then yelled at us at different times like a bipolar patient. Sometimes, she did both at the same time.

GOOD AND BAD TIMES
The very worst time this year was sometime in September when my aunt had a little tragedy and by extension, it bothered me but by the end of that week, it randomly occurred to me that if this is the worst thing that happens to me this year, it is a pretty good year.

The best time this year was when my cousin and aunty got married. Of course, I was there for none of the weddings. It was during community health exam. My family probably think I’m avoiding them and maybe some days I am but …

Also, when Nigeria was declared Ebola free. I tell people often that I suffer from a chronic case of Murphy’s Law or Sod’s law if you will. Anything that can go wrong goes wrong. When Nigerians were dying of EVD, I was scared at least once… a day that I was going to die before something absolutely great happens to me.

HOPES, DREAMS AND ASPIRATIONS
As always, I hope no one dies in 2015. I have no way to describe how people die on me. They die in clusters so my prayer for every year always starts with that. Let no one die.

Next year is our final year. I hope it goes without event and the exams…I only have to pass it.

I want to learn another language. Spanish was my language of choice in 2014. Hasta la fecha, ha sido genial. Ok, maybe just good. Anyway, I want to learn Italian next year or whatever else I can.

By next year, I should be make photorealistic drawings or paintings.

Now, I hope that next year is the year I do something truly great. I still want to climb a mountain and Ebola virus has kept that dream on a standstill but that is still one of my big dreams.

Anyway, the future is endless; I can do what I want to do when I can do it.

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Happy new year in advance from Perry’s Tots! 🙂