Day 15: Kelia Olughu

Here’s me saying thank you for inviting me to Afropolitan Vibes and to more outings in the future. *wine* Cheers! 😀
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Someone once told me “You are a writer, you should be able to express yourself perfectly”, he was right and he was wrong.

Being a writer doesn’t always mean you feel emotions and know how to explain them perfectly.

Hi, I am Kelia, and this is my second year contributing to Pero’s 31 Days 31 Voices. I am always super excited when I get invited until I open my laptop and the words don’t seem to come.

I really don’t think anything amazing happened in my life this year but I guess if I close my eyes and think about every month in the year, I might just remember something that I would regard as amazing.

February 12 is my birthday, this year I turned 21 (do you see why I stated the birthday date, 12… 21, lol), and you should know that this was the year, all my life I have dreamt of. It was the year, I was to become a real chic (like make up daily, dress up nice, walk right kinda chic), it was also the year I was to turn my craft into a business, but most importantly it was the year I was to find love and fall hopelessly in love.

Which would you rather hear first?

About being a chic…. For the first time, this year I shaped my eyebrows, it was in a desperate effort to achieve my lifelong dream of being a real chic before the year ran out. So September 8, I walked into a friend’s room and had her shape my eyebrows, and began my so far failed journey of learning to draw my brows. That is not the only real chic thing I have attempted to do and have failed doing it.

About that my business, I learnt a lesson which I would gladly share, “If you don’t make plans and work, your dreams would remain dreams” and that is what happened to me. I had huge dreams of turning my craft into a business, yet for my lack of plans, I watched the year drift away and nothing of the sort happen, so that came and went with the year.

And finally about ‘Love’. I don’t think this is the year I found love, but I am so certain that this is the year I fell hopelessly, crazily and madly in love. You see, I am not a believer of love at first sight, nah! But I believe that you love somebody everyday a little more, it is like feeling a jar until there is a surge and an explosion and no going back for you. Gladly, I think my explosion happened ‘the year I turned 21’.

The year has been a roller coaster ride for me.

First it started with a surge of happiness (my year starts February 12), when I thought to spend my birthday at home with my family. There was no fancy meal at my birthday, but it was so far the best I ever had. I stood there holding this pretty cake my mum and siblings had gotten me that said “We Love You Kelia” and cupcakes from my elder sister also saying “I Love You Kelia” and listening to all the wonderful things my family had to say about me. All that love on my 21st birthday, I never dreamt of in my 20 years.

The first thing I would remember that I learnt this year is “You would always find people that love you and care about you and your happiness, even when it doesn’t seem like it”. Thanks to my family and friends.

Then there were its lows, like early in the year I almost lost a close friend and I stood there wondering what I would have to do, if I couldn’t wake up and tell this friend of my fiction stories ideas, about my blog stats, about the story in the Saraba magazine I was reading, or something crazy or dumb that happened in my day, or just sit and enjoy the quite. And yes, many months after, I still think about that day, I almost lost all of that.

In May, I worked as Content Developer for Leading Health Nigeria, a program organized by Ebola Alert and it was an eye opener to the things I am capable of doing.

In July, I went for my Community Immersion in Ogun state and it was fun trying to learn Yoruba and explore the limit of my Pidgin English. At the end of that community immersion, I had learnt a lot, one of which was a revelation that I truly am not an ‘Aje-butter’ cos I did my sun hustle well.

And moments of total excitement like touring the United states, and waking up to great breakfast, eating Lunch (which I don’t in school) and mouth watering dinner and add something fun to do every day.

Did I say nothing amazing happened in my year?

I am grateful to the people that stood with me throughout the year and the new folks I met.

Grateful to my family and friends who played to ensure my sanity; when I felt like I lost it this year, all I needed to do was run to you for comfort, reassurance and sometimes just because I desire that you indulge me. It is reassuring to know that I am loved by you all.

My sister once put up this quote that said “To Love is nothing, to be loved is something, to be loved by someone you love is Everything”. This year, I have loved, I have been loved and I have been loved by people I loved.

My year has been in one word “Amazing!”

Kelia blogs on www.thoughtsofamedstudent.com

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Season’s greetings from Perry’s Tots.