NOTHING HAS CHANGED SHE IS THE SAME

In the chorus of the first song on Jon Bellion's album, The Human Condition (that I LOVE), he sings the line "nothing has changed (s)he is the same". I've been thinking about that a lot recently. Let's take a trip down memory, shall we?

When I was younger, I used to prefer buying food at school instead of taking homemade food to school. Something about that jollof rice that the woman in junior secondary school canteen made was so magical. 

I was thinking about the jollof rice the other night, and I could vividly remember (and see) the woman opening the cooler, removing the nylon that now had water dripping because of the steam from the HOT jollof rice hitting the nylon and her serving the jollof rice and removing any stray bay leaves along the way.

Then the sizzling hot stew with beef, SOFT, scrumptious kpomo 😋 and boiled egg and her soft moi moi! Oh, what a glorious moi moi it was 🤤🤤🤤 I just ate before typing this, but I'm salivating at the thought of it. Anyways, I digress.

Back to the gist.

I just always preferred buying food to bringing food from home. Even for that 1 term in secondary school when I was a day student because THS had so many strikes (long story), I still preferred to carry an empty cooler to school, buy rice from the canteen in nylon, tear it and pour it in my cooler and eat as if it was from home.

But now, and even back in 2019 during my internship in Egypt, I always cook my lunch from home. Maybe this could be because both that internship and my current job are not in Nigeria so there's no place I can get reasonably priced Nigerian food (which I prefer to eat) to buy for lunch every day so cooking from home is just the better option for my oh so selective yet accomodating taste buds.

Also, when you do the math (or accounting), you quickly realise that cooking from home is generally cheaper than buying already made food, no matter how cheap it seems. I remember thinking that KFC was cheap since I could get lunch for about £2.97, but when I calculated how much food £2.97 would account for in a pot of soup or rice, I realised that I would definitely get better value for money cooking from home. So it's not just the taste; it's the cost.

"Everything has changed, she is not the same"

For my entire life, I've always been lazy about studying for anything. I remember in primary school, my elder brother would always complain that I was never reading in preparation for exams. I mean, who reads in primary school, sef? Well, my brother did in primary 5 and was clearly befuddled because I wasn't studying. And at that point in primary school, I was already coming 3rd, and the next class, I was going to come 1st uncontested for 3 terms straight.

Going into secondary school and uni and post-grad after that, though I did put in some effort (even in primary school, I still read some things HABA! how will I not read at all and still pass exams? when I'm not Kyle XY) 

I don't think I have ever been in the top 50% of hardworking people. Maybe bottom 50% of overselling it, but let's just say I've never been the most hardworking.

I mean, I know people who went to the library every day or at least started studying weeks before exams. I was legit reading for exams 12-24 hours before taking them, even during my Masters! 😂😂😂 Does that sound like a serious person to you?

So yea, that hasn't changed.

I also still hate voice notes. I never really pick up phone calls, and my phone is ALWAYS on silent. I still remember my mum tripping over the fact that I never pick any call because my phone is always on silent. Anyways, mama Tega, it might interest you to note that 5 years down the line, my phone is ALWAYS silenced!

But some things have changed other than the fact that I take food from home.

I'm not as invested in viewing everybody's WhatsApp status anymore. I don't think I ever really used Instagram, but to whatever degree I used it in the past, I use it A LOT less now. I'm slowly getting out of it with Twitter.

"Some things have changed, she’s evolving" 

This post is more of a time capsule for me. Cataloguing some things I think have changed over the years and things that have stayed the same. I wonder how I would feel about this blog a few years down the line. 

In the words of Billie Eilish, Would I have changed the things I could not accept, or would I have accepted the things I could not change?

What about you? What are some things you think are still the same or have changed for you? Leave them in the comments so future you can find them someday like I'm doing for myself here with this blog.