Day 7: Annie

If there was one lesson I learnt from looking forward to the new year, and living through the year it is; things may not always go as planned, but if you trust your journey, and the God with you on your journey, things would go in sweet new way – sometimes, so much better than you envisaged. The most important thing you should take out of this is TRUST.

2017.

I started the year on a wrong foot, but I was excited about the prospects it held. It was in this year that I would become a medical doctor. Finally. After seven long and tough years.

It was a big deal. And I am grateful that it happened. And at the right time.

The first months of the year went by in a blur. It was mostly laden with school activities. Final exam was supposed to be in January, but it got postponed to April, then May and it finally held in the last weeks of May with our results released on June 2.

It was over.

The hard times were finally over. You mean, I no longer had to stay up at night studying, even when I’d rather sleep? I could go on social media without first going on a guilt trip? My parents did not have to keep paying varying fees and I keep being a dependent? (This was my best part.) The end-to-end lectures and tutorials were over?

I could breath and my year could officially start.

My friends and I stuck around school for the first few weeks after exam. When we had tidied all needful, we had to face it; it was time to say goodbye. Old bonds may grow frailer or stronger. New ones would be forged along the way.

I preoccupied myself the first few weeks I got home with sleeping. You know that guilt-free, refreshing type of sleep. A labourer is worthy of their wages, right? In this case, my “wages” was a fattening rest.

Soon, I had to travel to Lagos for Becoming 3.0. This was supposed to be one of my sure-to-happen events for 2017. To ensure I attended, I registered ahead of time. Even with that it was such a struggle still to attend, but I eventually did.

It was on this trip I met up with Perry for the first time in person. She was a great host, a lot more fantastic in person; beautiful on the outside and drop-dead georgeous on the inside. We arranged to meet at Covenant Christian Centre, Iganmu. It was my first of many Sundays to come worshipping there. A wish item ticked off my wishlist without realizing.💃💃

I also started applying and seeking places to do my housemanship. I was pretty sure I wanted to do it in Lagos. At this time, July now, I was yet to be formally inducted into the Medical and Dental Council Nigeria and given my license, but I applied nonetheless to LUTH, who was receiving applications at time, with and without license I was informed.

I didn’t get to visit other hospitals in Lagos before leaving to Port Harcourt, but I knew I’d be visiting again after I had been inducted and given my license.

I left Lagos sometime around the first week of August and was to travel to my village the next week for August meeting (the annual meeting Igbo women attend in their village) with my mum and aunt. No, I was not exactly going for the meeting as I am unmarried, but I was invited to be one of the facilitators in a health outreach they were organizing. You see, the infamous meeting has evolved to become an avenue through which the women give back to their community.

I was excited. Ecstatic. And made no poor show of it. It was my first outing as a doctor and more so, I was starting out in my village, with my own people.

It was a two-day event and I was payed as a doctor. You can call it my first real income.

One of my goals for 2017 was to become a Smart Money Woman. I read Arese Ugwu’s The Smart Money Woman last year, and was following her intently on Instagram. It was through her I learnt of Piggybank , you can read about my experience here. It was the perfect tool I needed on my journey to financial freedom. I began saving actively. You can say I slayed that goal!

I also started a blog.

I kick started a Facebook page where I can share the songs I love and are inspiring me.

I read a number of books. Some I finished, some I didn’t. Novels. Inspirational. History. Bible (yeah, the Bible 😁 I hope to finish reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers before the year ends. It’s a book on my must-finish-reading list.

I had a number of speaking engagements this year. Sharing my story with my world.

At this point I want to say something, but I will drop this image instead:

2018.
Be good to me. I’d do my part and as always, this girl here is TRUSTING.

Cheers to the new year. 💕

Seasons Greetings from Perry’s Tots.

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