SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS: ONE GIRL'S TALE

Kayode's Opening: This fantastic piece about a girl and the uncertainties of life was written by Kikelomo Adebiyi, a friend from the Twitterati. She's @kikee03 on Twitter and blogs on Kikelomoadebiyi's Blog, in case you wanna miss my "middlemanship" completely. You can go find her, or you could simply use those links I provided. You are of course welcome. Oh, and enjoy what she has to offer.

Whither?

I’ll be turning 23 in the next few days and I have no idea as to where my life is headed. I’ve always prided myself in being able to make the right decisions in whatever I do, maybe because I’m too proud to ask for advice or I’m just trying to prove to myself that I’m strong and mature enough to take bold steps, but at the end of the day, those so called ‘right decisions’ usually turn awry and I end up having to seek for assistance. I’ve
always been artistic, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, so I guess it wasn’t really a surprise to anyone when I opted to study art. My university days weren’t wild, I didn’t party, in fact, the only party I remember attending was my final year after-party (I was pretty much anti-social). Most of my campus life was based on going for lectures, hanging out with friends and then back to the hostel.

I had friends, but Angela was the one I was really close to and we still are to this day. We were both studying art, she was in the theatre section while I was in visual. I could tell her anything and I remember some days when we’ll stay up all night and gossip about the latest happenings in our department. It was always fun and I miss that. Speaking of happenings, I remember once being the talk of the department, I was in part two at the time and I had just gotten into a relationship with one of my classmates, he was tall, dark.. you know the kind. I was happy in love (or I thought I was), up until the moment when everyone started talking about me and making snide comments (which I gathered from Angela, who acted as my informant) as to why I was dating a guy in my class. I had no idea why it was such a big deal and people chose to talk about it and I know 

I should not have been bothered about what people say or think of me, but I was (put it down to immaturity). I hated the unnecessary attention. Why couldn’t people just mind their business? Then I remembered those days when I and Angela used to gossip about others. Karma.  My boyfriend at the time had no idea, maybe because he was a part-time student and wasn’t around most of the time or he probably just chose to ignore it. Needless to say, the relationship crashed and I was back to my normal, single, private, life.

I was later posted to Kwara State for my NYSC programme, I had to teach art in a catholic primary school in a village, very far from civilization. I had taught in my mother’s primary school before so I figured it wouldn’t be a problem, that was before I realized I was going to be teaching a bunch of Nupe and Hausa kids who could hardly speak English. It was torture. It wasn’t all bad though, I met a lot of interesting people that I could really talk to and it made me come out of my shell a little bit.

After my service year, my parents advised I go for my masters but I wanted a job, I wanted to start making money, I wanted to stop depending on my parents (not that they were complaining). So, I started my search for a job, I wanted to work in an advertising agency so I applied to several but nothing came. I became frustrated and upset, by that time I had wasted a year at home waiting for a job that never came, a year I could have used in getting my Masters degree. I had lost both ways. I guess I should be grateful to my parents for not saying ‘I told you so’.

So, after that episode, this year I wasted no time in applying for a postgraduate degree, and if a job comes along the way, great. If it doesn’t, at least I have something to look forward to. Hopefully, after that I’ll get a good job, marry a good man and have well behaved kids. But for now I’ve learned to take one step at a time, live life as it comes and not worry about what the future holds.


                                                                                             - Kikelomo Adebiyi