ORESEGUN AND THE MERMAID

Long Time Ago in a village called Alagboja. There was a drunkard called Oresegun. Many people believed that he inherited his drinking habit from his father, while some believed he was cursed by his father second wife because of his father’s love for him.

Oresegun was a talented and famous artist in Alagboja Village. Although he is a drunkard and still single at age 38, other artists still envy him because of his good works. On one Sunday morning, Mr Emgrin, a white man who lives in Lagos but based in Germany came to Alagboja Village to look for a land to start his cocoa farming. He was directed to the king’s palace. The king agreed to give him land in the village after their discussion.

Two weeks later, the king invited his chiefs and Mr Emgrin to his palace for a feast. During the feast, Mr Emgrin saw a large portrait of a young girl and he asked, who snapped this? “It was painted by Oresegun”, the king replied. He painted it when my only daughter drown in the river. Mr Emgrin could not believe his eyes because he never thought someone could paint and make it look so real like a photograph. He asked the king about Oresegun and he said he will like to take him to Germany.

One of the chiefs, Mr Gbola was angry because his son is an artist and his works are also in the palace but they were not recognized. He planned to kill Oresegun that night so he ordered some thugs to do so. The thugs went to Oresegun’s house to carry out the task. They tied Oresegun and threw him into the river. He was dying, suddenly he was untied and he opened his eyes. Surprisingly, he saw the king’s daughter that drown and died in the river sometime ago. He looked at her and he observed that she is half human and half fish. He was scared but she said to him, “don’t be scared because I am here to help you. Chief gbola is behind my death and he also wanted to kill you because of jealousy. I will show you the way out of here”. She took him out of the river. He reported what happened to the king and the king ordered for the arrest of the thugs. They confessed and Cheif Gbola was stoned to death by the villagers.

Oresegun stopped drinking and he was taken to Germany to continue his Art work.

Featured Image by: Oresegun Olumide
Written by: Emgrin Rowland

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NURTURE YOUR MIND WITH GREAT THOUGHTS – SEE WHY

The mind is just like the brain which deals with your intellect, i.e the faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding. It’s also connected to the ability for rational thoughts, the ability to be aware of things, the ability to remember things, and the ability to focus on the thoughts.

All these features can keep you going forward in life if the mind is surrounded with good/great thoughts. The mind works like a written test or exam, what you give it is what it will give you in return. For example, if you continue having evil/negative thoughts about people’s success in their business or whatsoever, you will always continue to fail in your own quest, OR, if you always think of using/buying what people have already created, you can never create your own.

Talking about keeping your mind off negative/poor thoughts and filling it with great ideas/plans, will help you alot in creating a life of opportunities and success towards your target. Therefore, nurture your thinking, make it creative. Think of the bigger part of life you’d want to venture in, and make it real by setting the targets of your plans.

Great people today had the mindset of becoming great because they had the idea of creating something good for themselves, so they worked on every of their plans. They don’t just think of something that will help them for some hours, rather, they think of the possibility of creating something that will make them ‘well-known individuals’ in future of which they’ll benefit from.

Great thoughts builds the road for success beyond one’s imagination. It helps you discover a more meaningful and happy life. Being great is being big, not just big, but very big. As a student, don’t just think of passing your exams, but rather, think of passing the exams with ‘great’ grades even though you can guess what you might have. As a business man/woman, think of making ‘great’ sales of products. As a normal worker, always think of getting ‘great’ promotions and earnings. All these aforementioned processes above are what should be in your mind, and to make them come out real, do things according to how they can be established. A student must always study hard to make that dream come successful, a business man/woman need to be committed, friendly and consistent in his/her business in order to make good sales, a normal office worker need to put in more impressive work-style in order to have great promotion or salary top-up.

Your mind is always ready to act if you follow the right processes. Train the mind to focus on great thoughts, then work towards your plans. I’ll leave you with this proverb, “Instead of thinking of how you can buy a pen, think of how you can make a pen (some day)

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HOW TO STICK TO YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

As part of the new life strategy that comes in the new year, people try to change from some certain things they’ve been doing that hasn’t been favouring them. Therefore, people bring up resolution for themselves in the new year, and some do stand by their words, while others find it hard to follow up to what they’ve decided upon.

Here are some ways ‘I think’ you can use to stick with your new year resolution and make life splendid for yourself and those around you.

1. Decide with your heart, be ready to fight against temptations. 
This is the first thing I think you should do before thinking of having new year resolution. You should decide the plans you have for the new year and how you want it to appear in your life and things you’d want to change about yourself and the environment. Be ready to devote your time in your plans, take it as a challenge that you ‘must’ be committed to your plans no matter the temptations that will come in the process. Take it that you don’t wanna live that life of the past, you’re now in a new era altogether and nothing should stand as a barrier.

2. Note down/Write down your plans and resolution. 
I think this should follow up after deciding your plans for the year. Write down the context of your resolution in a notebook, notepad or pc/mobile phone notes (a perfect example is the ‘Docs to Go’ app I use on my BlackBerry 10 smartphone). The reason why you need to write them down is to keep you focused and determined as you’ll be tracking your progress daily/weekly. Let your write-ups be succinct and straightforward, and should come in summary for you to easily read up and act.

3. Be aware of friends who will bring you back, keep them off you. 
Before a target is been set, some certain things that will cause hindrance have to be removed. For example, one of your resolution is to stop ‘smoking’ and you know you have friends who have not yet decided that for themselves, you’ll have to stay far from them else you ‘might’ be brought back to what you’ve planned to leave. This is true and that’s why you ‘must’ need to stick with the number #1 point I wrote on and get alternatives to it before further processes.

4. Do not procrastinate, start somewhere!
Be true to yourself, don’t hesitate to carry out the tasks you’ve written with the influence of procrastination. Ensure to start somewhere amidst temptations. Procrastination only end up bringing your plans down and for you to make it, you need to start somewhere no matter what.

5. Act and Believe you can make it. 
This is the last thing you should do, atleast, believe in yourself. Believe that you can do it no matter what the mistakes or error you might get, don’t stop until you’ve achieved the goal. Believe and trust yourself that you can make it. Know that ‘you can only if you think you can’.

Make the new year a favourable one for you and stick to whatever you believe in as far as it’s part of your target. Change yourself and change your environment in anyway you can and stick to your plans.

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PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE EXCEPTIONALLY ATTRACTIVE

The concept of attractiveness is a fickle thing and is not easy to define. The most obvious aspect of attractiveness is, of course, physical appearance but it isn’t the only one nor is it even the most important one. I mean, take a look at Jack Nicholson. From the physical side of things, he looks nothing special. He isn’t handsome, athletic or anything physically special but he has got that certain something that makes him so successful with the ladies.  There are numerous factors that can make one person more attractive than the other. In some cases, people pull through on mere confidence, other times it is their actions that make them attractive, but what about vocation? Could this be one of the factors?

Well, according to a study done on the University of Pennsylvania’s students by professor Scott Barry Kaufman, there is a clear distinction between attractiveness based on which creative vocation a person has. While being a musician (in various forms) tops the list, if you are a professional photographer, you’ll be happy to know that you are standing in the solid 7th position.  Still, if we merged all the creative activities related to music into one universal position and removed sports which tops the charts (I mean come on, it’s not about creativity here, it’s about physical fitness), photographers would rank even higher. Buy why? What makes them so attractive? Well, there are more than a few things!

1. They see the beauty in everything

Photographers are always looking for new inspiration, at least the good ones are. Their eyes are constantly searching for that angle, the composition or lighting that will help them snap their next masterpiece. This indubitably transfers into their everyday lives, so even when they do not have their photos in mind, they will be more than inclined to point out the beauty of a particular scene they come across and change their partner’s perspective on things. A lot of people assume that photographers are focused on physical beauty but the really good ones can actually find beauty in anything and everyone! They find beauty in the harshest places and make them look stunning! This is a tremendous talent to have – to change how a person looks at the world.

2. They are creative people

Creativity radiates differently from one artist to another, as well as from one art form to another, but it always leaves a distinct mark on a personality the artist develops. There is simply a distinct approach to life that can attributed to creative souls universally and this is what sets them apart as unique. Photography is a good way to a distinct lifestyle, gives you a peculiar mind-set and to be honest, I don’t think that the lives of two photographers anywhere in the world are generally alike. With a few simple tips you can make your photos look great, but the originality and artistic values of the photos are goals that you really need to be a talented and dedicated professional to reach. It is just the general approach of documenting particular moments in time in an as beautiful way as possible, which gives them a unique vibe. Sure, we are all a bit into photography these days but not many are truly artists. The creativity trait often gives you advanced problem solving capabilities which are more than valuable in this art form and in life, in general.

3. They are usually nomads

This is at least true for the time that they are younger and just starting out. As a photographer, you like diversity in your living environment as well as your business environment. There are really a few other vocations that would allow you to travel so much as this one. Whether you are a band photographer, sports photographer, fashion photographer, you need to travel. It is simply in your job description. All people who travel a lot and come in contact with different cultures give off that cosmopolitan look and their stories about different cultures are quite enticing. This travel charisma is a big factor in their attractive image. They are capable of packing in a moment’s notice, but they do this by knowing how to prepare in advance. Although their lifestyle may seem wild and fast, they are very organized people. After all, the equipment costs quite a lot, so you can’t be too careful when packing so you don’t forget something that is valuable as well as a necessity to your work.  Also, a lot of photographers speak more than one language and this is something that is universally attractive.

4. They are independent and free

The majority of photographers are freelancers, who very much have control over what kind of work they do and who they collaborate with. This kind of freedom usually stems from a healthy dose of confidence and also gives people an environment to solidify their trust in themselves. When you are flying solo, you need to be able to manage all the work you do yourself and every mistake you make actually affects your own bottom line. This breeds capable and responsible people who are capable of holding their own in a relationship, which is a much desired trait in a partner. A lot of them possess a certain dose of streetwise which they picked up from their travels. After all, photographers are often targets of street attacks in any country in the world, due to the relative compactness of their equipment and its high value. This means that you need to be on your toes and be wary of dangerous situations. This kind of mindset gives photographers the ability to project a sense of security to other people. Being able to think on your feet is quite appealing to both men and women as a very attractive trait to, well, both men and women.

5. They are always willing to meet new people

There have been more than a few meltdowns between partners caused by one sides disinterest in socialization and insistence on a more secluded lifestyle. This wouldn’t be the truth with people in this profession. Their line of work includes meeting and working with a lot of different people and they are very much adapted to diverse social environments and can always find a common topic for conversation with people of different backgrounds. Not everyone has the patience for meeting new people and not being able to adapt to somebodies circle of friends can sometimes be a deal breaker for some relationships. The fact that they fit in quite nicely and are generally liked by all gives them an edge. Moreover, these days, everyone wants to have good photos and people are generally a bit more pleasant towards those who can snap a great one on a whim. That was a joke – to some extent.

As you can see, there are tons of reasons why you might want to consider a professional career in photography. Still, a lot of people tend to get into it but underestimate the work and effort that you need to include in order really make it. It doesn’t just boil down to snapping a DSLR at things and people. There is a whole science and then there is the whole question of creativity and personal style. It takes years to practice and work to develop this craft to a professional level. The lifestyle is great but requires a lot of dedication and more than a few sacrifices.

Credit: Lifehack

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WHAT TO DO WHEN CHOOSING YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND

Sometime ago my elder sister shared some wisdom with me that I want to share with you now. She said someone she respects a lot advised her to look out for the things she didn’t like in a person when choosing a life partner. It’s easy to pick out all the things we like about our supposed hubby to be. We are in love and of course “love is blind” or just wearing dark shades (don’t know which one) but after some years or months into the marriage when love must have taken off those shades, we begin to see the things we don’t like in our significant other.

Things that we saw in the past but chose to ignore them subconsciously (that’s what love does). Thus her advice to me which is now my advice to you is, “don’t just look out for all the things you love about your partner, also look out for the things you hate as well and ask yourself can I live with this for the rest of my life?” consciously program your mind to pick out his deficiencies or even come out straight and ask him“what are your weaknesses” (everybody has one).

Everybody has a weakness and everybody has those things they can tolerate and the ones they can’t. Some women will not mind tolerating a man with anger issues and others will not mind a man with Ego it all depends on what you can tolerate and what you can’t. Personally, pride is a big NO for me. Don’t deceive yourself into thinking that he will change after marriage, if he does praise God but for the sake of a happy married life ask yourself“peradventure this guy doesn’t change, can I live with this for the rest of my life?” “Can I still love him whole heartedly even with his __________ issues?”

Love is not just, loving all his good sides but loving the whole of him. It’s a full package; his charm, charisma as well as his Anger so if you must love him, love all of him. Happy Married life.

Source: Superwoman.com.ng

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WHY YOUR LEFT BREAST IS BIGGER THAN YOUR RIGHT

Women know that their twins are not identical. Every woman with natural breastshas a slight difference between the two. One may be larger, higher, have a different shape etc. The differences between the two are usually not pronounced and may be noticed only by the bearer sometimes. If your asymmetrical breasts are more than slight, then it is necessary to see your doctor.

For some women the left breast is bigger than the right. The location of the heart on the left side of our breast is what causes this slight enlargement. The heart has a lot of arteries and veins surrounding it. It also has a protective layer of fat beneath it therefore its position may make the left breast bigger than the right.

 
For some other women their right is bigger. There are also other factors that could cause one breast to be bigger than the other

Rapid growth that occurs during puberty is one reason one breast might be bigger than the other. Often, the smaller breast catches up in size with the larger one later in development.

 
Pregnancy and breastfeeding can also bring changes in your breast size. If your baby sucks on one breast more than the other, the most active breast would produce more breast milk which would make the breast heavier and bigger

If you have been on the big side for a while and you decide to lose some weight it’s normal to lose some fat around the breast too, and the same applies for those who gain weight. This might cause one boob to be bigger in the cause of weight loose or gain.

Source: Superwoman.com.ng

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WAKING UP AT 3AM

What do you do when your eyes open at 3am for no apparent reason and you close them and try to go back to sleep, only to open them at 3.07am, unable to appeal to the sleep gods to bless you with some proper sleep?

Off the top of my head, there are several options.
– pray, in the casting and binding fashion, to expel the evil spirit that stopped by just to wake you up
– get out of bed and head to the refrigerator to snack on something unhealthy that will add to your love handles
– pick up your phone and scan through your notifications on instagram, twitter, facebook, bbm and watsapp…never minding the fact that you went to bed at midnight just after doing the exact same thing.

Thanks to Serena and this column, recently, when this happens to me, I wait a few minutes to see if the sleep gods bless me and then I go through my notifications then I pick up my laptop and type. I type whatever comes to mind…true stories and experiences, utter fiction and wishful thinking, to do lists and prayer requests….I just type.

This piece is one, borne out of one of such unplanned early mornings. As I typed away at random thoughts and things, I drifted into wondering why I didn’t just write things down in a note pad (I think I am a notepad addict…I have so many half used or untouched notepads and I would still happily buy or accecpt more as gifts). I figured I would try that morning and so I picked up a pad and a pen. I stared at that page for so long, fighting the urge to just pick up my phone again and go through notifications I had already seen. When it became obvious that my mind was not going to put any reasonable words together, I started to doodle. I drew the most ridiculous contraptions and the weirdness of the shapes made me question the state of my mind.

And then it hit me.

I belong to that league of humans who have evolved passed the phase of writing by hand. We have discovered that it is possible to function with our laptops as an extension of our arms and brains and we truly are unable to function without a keyboard and display screen.

I shook my head at myself.

When the day is bright, I just might take a trip to a store and buy myself a handwriting learning book….the kind that has the letters that you trace over and over till you can write it yourself. Or I might just accept my evolution and make the most of it.

What I will certainly do though, is go to my kitchen and try out the new herbal tea I bought…the sales girl said it enhances brain function.

Source: Superwoman.com.ng

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#11 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS STILL IN LOVE WITH HER EX

It might interest you to know that even when you are both happy together, she still have emotional feelings for her ex. Some of these attitudes brought up by ladies can actually destroy the happiness in their current relationship unknowing to them should their current boyfriend/lover finds out.

Though, it’s important for you as a guy to know the moves of your girlfriend in order to maintain the affection and love in the relationship. As much as girls don’t like taking nonsense, the same thing goes with the guys also. Therefore, some of these girls who claim to have high knowledgeable ways of doing things, trick and prank their boyfriends showing love as if they care, meanwhile wants to be connected with their exes.

It pains so much when you have a girl that can’t do without her ex, it’s just as if they didn’t break-up, but rather they travelled. That’s why guys should always be careful and watchful before going out on a date with a girl who has had exes. These set of ladies don’t want to loose either of you, so she plays a ‘tricky’ game just to keep the both of you and choose who to settle with in future tomorrow after spotting out some differences between you both.

These tips below will guide/make you know your girlfriend is still in love with her ex, so as for you to know your stand in the relationship. 

#1. They are secretive when it comes to residual feelings of love for their exes. 
They always hide things that might interest you to know when telling you about her ex and how they’ve lived and what caused the break-up. She only tells you “one good and one bad” aspect of her former relationship, what he caused that made them to break-up (he always causes break-ups, she doesn’t *lies*). She behaves as if she doesn’t love him any longer but she does a little.

#2. She’s probably confused when she’s alone thinking about her life. 
This set of ladies can’t concentrate well when thinking about her life and relationship life. She still love that guy and also she loves the present guy, which to follow? This becomes a question she continuously stumble upon in her lonely periods and sometimes she might dare to speak with you (the present guy) about it. You’ll know what I mean if you read her mind and understand her, or maybe catch her one day when she’s having that thought and when you ask her, she’ll say nothing. Be aware that something’s wrong!

#3. She’s irritated at every of your mistakes and misbehaviour in thought of the guy. 
She always have this thought of yelling. She yells at anything you might have done wrongly after a long conversation with her ex on call and on chats. Afterwards, she goes back sitting quietly, waiting for you to go and plead for forgiveness before she’ll realise her actions and come back to her senses.

#4. She compares you to him here and there mostly anytime you have quarrels/misunderstanding. 
She takes you for granted by comparing your activities with that of her ex. She thinks her ex is better of with that task than you, she feels you don’t know how to tackle things compared to her ex. Childishness can make these set of girls to be comparing who’s more cute between the both of you even by tagging your pictures together just to spot the difference, who’s got more swags than who and who’s more educated. These set of ladies still need to improve in their relationship life because this is what causes “use and dump” phrase used for some ladies. No one wants to marry a girl who’s that shallow.

#5. She’s still in touch with him and they connect together. 
Some ladies are just too smart. They say they’ve broken-up with him but they still call him everyday, they still chat him on social networks every hour. You as the boyfriend will start wondering, and maybe one day you ask her why she’s continuously doing this, she’ll say they are just friends and nothing more. She’ll even be angry that you’re asking her that and that you’re jealous, not knowing that you’re protecting what’s yours.

#6. She likes talking about her ex and remembers the memories they’ve spent together that you’re yet to meet. 
She’s not always comfortable when a particular task that her ex did hasn’t been done by you. She feels her ex is more planned and organised than you. She might openly tell you in a playful way one day that “you’re not impressing her and that her ex normally do more than that”. This is one problem with some guys though in a relationship, but doesn’t mean girls should take that as an advantage. She talks about his ‘goods’ always, no cons.

#7. She still want to be friends with him even when you’ve advised her on so many occasions. 
She just can’t do without him, therefore, she tries to still be friends with him just to continually see his recent activities. Some childish acts of some of these ladies is to bookmark their picture upload page on any social network, to easily get their recent activity of how the guy is living large or how he’s enjoying his life. They easily get carried away to come back to him. It shows that she still has interest in him.

#8. She’s jealous seeing her ex with other girls. 
Sometimes she cries and get moody seeing her ex that she still have feelings for in different hangouts with other ladies. She gets jealous and can’t cope with it. Maybe she saw it on his social network platform, she’ll jealously secret-chat the guy just to know who those ladies are.

#9. She loves you both but she thinks of him more. 
There’s nothing in this life that can buy true love. She might like you, but when this thought of him keeps coming to her senses, she just can’t help it. She just love him so much that she always make references to their special songs they sang together, movies they watched together and other things they’ve done together.

#10. She keeps much of his pictures in her phone so as to remember him constantly. 
She’s not afraid of you seeing it, she dares you because she doesn’t love you compared to him. She even go to the extent of designing his pictures, adding them on collage with hers. She’s just fond of this.

#11. She’s not afraid of you quitting the relationship.
To some ladies in this act, infact, that’s what they’ve been waiting for to hear from you. They don’t just want to bring that idea anytime quarrels come up, they might be tempted sometimes though, but they want you to be the one saying the relationship should end so she won’t feel guilty of it when explaining to her friends. This will also give the opportunity to fully go back to the ex.

These are some of the noticeable ways to find out your girlfriend isn’t done yet with her ex. You can actually find out by tracking her daily activities. It’ll be better sitting her down and educating her about what she’s doing and things that might come up due to her actions.

Some girls can actually be harmful at the end in a relationship. There’s a point I believe you can tolerate her attitude. If she refuses to listen to your utterances and advice, I’d advice you to look for a way and move on with your life, but if she’s a good and sensitive girl that understands what made them part ways, she’ll listen up and turn ways.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR COMMENT AFTER READING AND ALSO LIKE AND SHARE IT TO FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK e.t.c…

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SORRY I DID THIS TO YOU

Listen carefully. Read with your mind open. This is a true life. Your comments does not matter. Only your attention does.

As you read. You would discover a bitter truth. This is my story.

A story I never picture seeing myself writing – not now – or ever. But this is where fate had steered me and – my mistake of blindly trusting a fellow human. And the mistake of wanting what everyone has.

Like every story, mine started with a happy beginning. I was a humble – beautiful – lady from a comfortable home. Well brought up by both parents with the scriptures being the centerpiece of my upbringing.

Life breeze up so fast and I got to meet a lot of people. Some of them affected my life positively and few leaving a little dent while one person – the devil with a charming smile – left a hefty pain load in my life that I still deal with till date.

My brothers and sisters, never trust a fellow man. Never trust anything that walks on two feet. You wanna know why? Because I’ve been through this path and I’ve experienced the heavy dosage of pain it promises for anyone that venture into the path of blind trust – and love.

In my case, this fact did not become clear until I met Kunle – an innocent looking guy back then in High school – when I was applying for admission into a state-owned polytechnic in Ogun state.

Back then in High school, Kunle was a senior colleague, a gentle, handsome and peace loving person. No one would ever taught he could hurt a fly. Well that’s a fact, he said he can’t. Maybe because flies are not his speciality.

When I met Kunle on the day of Post-Utme, I was very glad and we struck a friendship that continued after I gained admission.

After the orientation week and everything, I realize the Polytechnic like other higher institutions was a jungle not fit for a fragile looking person like me. I was afraid of everything – the bullies, cultists, lecturers and even co-students. It was just it everyone against me. I even refuse to make friends.

It was in my quest for refuge that I moved in with the kunle – my savior. Kunle proved to be a nice person and we get on well. He taught me the basic about school and even though we are not in the same level or department, we are often seen walking hand-in-hand.

With this kind of cordial relationship, I didn’t think twice when Kunle asked me out during the second semester of my N.D one and things went on smoothly. Kunle’s friends became mine and I sort fit in perfectly into his life.

Mind you, our relationship was a decent one – one devoid of the ‘iranu’

And ‘abasha’ that characterize regular teenage relationship. That does not we didn’t do things – we hug, hold each other hands and have light kisses – insofar it was in public and not behind close doors.

Everything was perfect. A perfect relationship. I was even planning the future: three boys and two girls. Kunle want two girls.

Things did fell apart and I was woken from this my soothing nightmare. Kunle was never the man I thought he was – he was not even close to the picture of what I have in my head.

Things began unravelling after he finished his ND program. He became paranoia, and possessive. Always accusing me of walking around with strangers because he is away on ‘IT’. I tried to calm his fears but he wouldn’t listen.

The relationship began to display cracks – a thing we never imagined a semester back.

One blue afternoon, Kunle called to notify me he was around for his clearance. I was really happy. It’s been a while I saw him last. I didn’t even think twice before saying ‘yes’ when he told me he was coming around.

Kunle did kept to his promise, he came in around six in the evening – smelling all posche and cleanly shaven. It dawned on me that I have missed him. We hugged, smile and held hands.

My new room-mate – Anita – quickly excused herself. She assumed we need all the privacy and would not want to disrupt the flow. She thought Kunle would love to spend the night – something I never considered – in order to iron out our misunderstanding.

After she left, I offered to prepare our best meal – Spaghetti and fried plantain. Kunle offered to get a Chivita drink to balance the table. He went out straight while I master the kitchen to prefer a meal we so both like eating.

By the time Kunle arrived, the meal was ready. He sat down and prayed. He asked God to forgive our sins – his inexcusable sins – and to add a better episode as the conclusion of our relationship.

I innocently murmured ‘amen’ and quickly grab my fork to resume my meal.

Kunle poured me a drink. I smiled, knowing fully well he doesn’t take sweetened drinks. He poured himself a cup of water.

“Cheers! To all the memories” – he said. I smiled again. There is always something about him that brings this smile to my face.

I gulped my cup of orange juice – with the face Kunle being the last thing I saw.

I didn’t remember dropping the glass cup. All I knew was everything was enveloped in darkness – and my eyes and brain – and I was automatically shut down.

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LIFE HAPPENS WHILE YOU ARE SLEEPING

Sleeping is a moment to rejuvenate our bodies, minds and souls. We need it to function properly, but we must wake up to keep our lives running. Oftentimes, we wake up in our bodies but we stay asleep in our minds. For me, sleeping is being out of the touch with the truth. The truth is seldom the noises in the outside world, but the still voice within ourselves. It is that insistent force pushing towards the better us, positive changes and success even when the world keeps dragging us back to mediocrity. Most times we ignore this relentless force and we give in to the noises of this world.

Even though we seem awake and conscious as we go about our daily endeavors, the reality that we are unconscious of the fact that the beautiful life we are searching for is determined by the outcomes of our simple daily actions.

While idling

The times you spend at work is important. They say, how you do one thing is how you do everything. If you are wasting time on some trivial stuff, then it’s probably true you do it in everything else in life. Wake up from the sleep, and do the work. Put efforts and be productive.

While busy with trivialities

What do you focus on mostly? Our thoughts may be trivial, but it’s important to realize that your mind’s capitalize on what you constantly think about. The more you think and do something the deeper it gets in your mind. To understand your path in life, simply ask yourself a question, are my thoughts helping you towards your goals or taking you astray?

It’s important to understand that you must learn stuff that are worthwhile towards achieving your goals. Learn stuff that grow you up personally. Work on yourself as much as you work on your goals. It’s important to understand yourself better before planning to venture into any goal in life. This will save you enough time and trouble of doing things the wrong way. Working on yourself leads to discovering your strengths and weaknesses.

While avoiding risks

I understand that not everyone is a risk taker and that’s okay. We have different levels of measuring the risks we can take. But we risks also depend on the level of comfort you have at the time. The comfort zones almost never allow you to take risks. People who take risks are hungry and not comfortable with their lives. They need to advance or change.

Are you a risk taker? If you are not, don’t worry because there are more like you. But I want to highlight a simple point here – if you are employed, then the advancement in your life hardly depends on what you do in your 8am to 5pm job, rather it lies in what happens between 5pm to 8am. What you do in this moment determines the pace that you climb the stairs of success and change in your life.

While procrastinating

Are you good with keeping your promises? Do you follow through your goals to the end?

It’s not what we don’t do that matter, but what we do but not finish that count a lot in taking down toll to our life’s misery. Procrastination is a thief of time and you’ll certainly need to get rid of this habit in order to see a breakthrough in your life.

While bingeing

The body is the most important and yet the only machine you’ll use during your lifetime. Still, most of us abuse it. We don’t know how to take good care of it, or even if we do, we hardly do the right thing.

We lack discipline to control what we eat, what we drink and how we burn the extra calories that we gain through our binging. Having a limit is important to ensure we preserve the health of our bodies so that they are efficient in getting us the lives we need. Beware of what you eat.

Credit: Colin Mtita

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