Follow @jozzie_o

Thursday, February 22, 2018

The 10 YOU SHOULDs

February 22, 2018 0 Comments

⇒ Volunteer more: Even if you don't have so much to give, volunteering gives you a certain sense of fulfillment when you help meet the need of a person in need.

⇒ Do what you love: There's nothing more fulfilling than following your dreams. It gives you inner peace. Yes, it may stress you sometimes but please, I'd rather be stressed doing what I love.

⇒ Be SELFISH with YOUR happiness: You're probably wondering when I stressed on those two words huh? Well… it's really important to put your happiness first sometimes because in the long run it's what matters baby!


⇒ Treat yourself to a good time: Appreciate yourself with random gifts and treats when you achieve something. Extremely big or extremely small, appreciate yourself.

⇒ Surround yourself with positive people: One of the big killers of dreams asides fear is people; negative, dream-killing people who have just positioned themselves in your life to watch your every move and judge all your actions. Don't entertain them. Remove the chairs under their butt.

⇒ Laugh for the weirdest reasons: I do this a lot. Lol. It might not even be that funny but who cares. I'm laughing to feel good and look/live younger. I tell myself inside jokes, so if you see me around laughing to myself without anyone beside me, no, I'm not mad. It was just an inside joke.

⇒ Take risks: What's the highest that can happen when you take risks and it doesn't go as you thought? You fail. So what? It's braver to take risks than to sit down regretting why you didn't. Trust me. I know what it feels like. It feels like shit.

⇒ Have exciting conversations with random people on common interests: It's always really beautiful when meet a stranger and you both hit off a really good conversation. When you talk about common interests you learn a whole lot that you didn't even imagine existed and you add to your knowledge bank.

⇒ Cry for movies: Don't hold back the tears. Cry. It'd make you appreciate love, life, health etc.

⇒ Finally, stop THINKING too much! I'm a defaulter when it comes to this one. Someone once said "if thinking was a drug, I'd die from an overdose" and I could relate to it on a 1000% level. The problem is you forget to live in the moment and appreciate what it offers.





What other "SHOULDs" should we know about? Leave a comment or send an email ðŸ˜‰



Image: Google

Friday, February 9, 2018

Child

February 09, 2018 0 Comments
Have you ever wished to be a child again because of one thing or the other that you see that reminds you those happy memories in your childhood, memories that you would forever cherish and not trade for anything?

My childhood was a really beautiful one. I lived in a flat with my mum and my 3 siblings, and because my siblings were way older than I was, the kind of play I wanted to play was too childish for them. Thank God each of my neighbors had kids my age, some I even went to school with and the others schooled close to my school so you can imagine what going home felt like after school hours. Since my house wasn't from school, we all walked back home together kicking dust and hanging our schoolbags on our heads (I don't even know how we were comfortable). When I got home, after taking off my uniform, the next thing I did was drink garri. I had this really long cup that I used, my special garri cup. Only God knows why I loved it so much because I don't even know myself. Even when there was no sugar, I opted for salt. Yes. I can hear you say "what? how now"? Well, I don't know what was wrong with me. It was like an addiction until one day I put a lot of it into my special cup with so much salt and I couldn't finish it, even my aunty said she was going to beat me if I didn't finish it. Your guess is as good as mine. I went to hide to throw it away.

I remember Fridays were my best days cos' school always seemed more interesting as if that was the Law of Elementary school "Fridays had to be really interesting for the kids". "Osheey no school tomorrow", was my favorite saying on Fridays, and I never touched homework until Sunday night or Monday morning or never. I can remember Primary 4 very vividly, I was always punished or flogged for not doing homework. Like every single time. Lmao. Don't worry. I became better as I grew up. Friday evenings were all about games or stories. "Catcher/Police and Thief", "Who pinch you", "Name Name Name", "Ten Ten", "Oba ni ke da'wo jo", "Mr. Macaroni/On my way to Sailor's house", "I call on", "One One touch" (Yes. I played football. Wipe the surprise off your face) and so many other games including playing house, playing emergency room (one time my cousins and I helped a cockroach give birth. Now, I cringe at the sight of a roach), playing with dolls and stuffed animals, cooking with sand, leaves and sometimes stealing ingredients from my Mum's kitchen.

As a child, there was a whole lot to enjoy including getting gifts and cash from visitors anytime they stopped by. Recently my mum's friend came to see us and he was about leaving, that's how he said "you're a big girl now. Do you still need money"? I just smiled but I'm sure you can imagine what went through my head. Being grown up can be annoying sometimes. Ugh.

Sometimes I just look at niece who is going to be 2 years old in May and I feel a rush of love flow through my entire being when she smiles or laughs or calls my name (even though she pronounces it as Auntie "Tan" instead of "Joanne", but goes ahead to call every other person's name in the house properly). I'm just like "there's nothing purer than a child's love", it makes me shed a tear sometimes just thinking about it. We have the experience of an adult, but let's strive to always have/show love like a child.

What's your favorite childhood memory?







Image: Google

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Endurance

February 01, 2018 0 Comments

I had just finished from a modelling class I was taking in Surulere, Lagos one time, and I was really exhausted and my feet hurt because I was practising my catwalk and my instructor made me do it over and over until I got it correctly. Ugh. In my head, I was like "and people have been deceiving me by saying I knew how to catwalk", yen yen yen.


After my class, I walked to the bus stop; well farther than where I usually took keke (tricycle), cos' I noticed that I didn't have enough money on me and I forgot my credit card at home. I had calculated that okay o, if I walk to this particular point the fare for the keke would reduce from 100 naira to 50 naira and I'll talk the BRT to my bus stop. No my dear. After walking for several minutes, I decided it was time to stop one and enter. No. I did not want to faint on the road biko. That's how I entered it and the driver or rather the tricyclist just said "100 naira any bus stop". I was like "God please don't do this to me". Well I got to the place where I could get the BRT but I looked in my hand and remembered I now had only 150 naira left and the BRT fare was 200 naira. So I walked. Have I told you before how much I love walking? Lol. But for real, I love walking; even though at this point I wasn't walking because I enjoyed it. What was my plan you ask? Sigh. My plan was to walk another distance and enter the normal yellow bus from there; at least the fare would have been cheaper. That's how I walked o. The bus would have passed a bridge normally and I couldn't walk on it because bridge. I didn't want to fall off the bridge because sometimes I feel breeze can blow me in the direction it so earnestly desires. So I walked beneath the bridge but I followed the direction of the bridge. That's how I got stuck somewhere because there was no road again. Hian. So I turned back to the direction I was coming from. I just whispered "God abeg I'm tired. Make a way for me to reach my house". Immediately I saw one other type of bus that I'd promised myself I would never enter while I was standing at a bus stop a day before (although it was wayyy cheaper). Why? Because it wasn't comfortable and it always seemed like a struggle when people tried to get on it. When I saw the bus, I just said I've gotten this opportunity to get home and I won't miss it (coupled with the fact that I had already started seeing double). I can tell you that the journey was far from comfortable as I had imagined but I was glad to get home.

Sometimes we want to achieve something but because the way to that achievement isn't convenient enough we let go of our aspirations. Sometimes inconvenience is the only way. Sometimes the inconvenience is part of the process. Take for example, the fire and the pressure that gold and diamond have to go through respectfully, to bring out the very best in them. Bottom line is just for you to endure. Endure darling, endure.







Images: Google