Happy new year! 🥳🎉
Before I go into what this blog post was initially supposed to be about, let me talk about something that's been on my mind for a minute.
The concept of new days, new weeks or years are all MADE UP!
The only reason why 8 am is 8 am is because some people at some point in history decided that that's what we would call that period in the day. The period of the day we decided is 8 am could have been 8 pm or 1 am or anything else.
The only reason it's the year 2022 is because some people chose a random point on the earth's revolution and said THIS shall be the point in time where we start counting the year. So if they had agreed that what we now know as January 10th would be the starting point, we would have been shouting happy new year TODAY. It's not like our birthdays where there is a recorded starting point. No one can reliably calculate the exact moment in time when the earth's revolution started, so there's no starting point to begin counting from.
If you really deep it, every new day, minute, second is the start of a new year. Because it marks 365 days since the earth was last at that position in its revolution around the sun. See, it's all random, made up.
So I find it HILARIOUS when people (and I do this too) say things like "this is my first meal of the year" or "I've not had my bath this year". In light of what I just explained, does that make any sense?
Anyways, I think the concept of new year's is fine still because it puts people in a renewed mindset. A mindset that this is a "new", fresh page of my life where I can try something new or drop off old habits I didn't like. The mental refreshing and cause for introspection it gives is valuable, so I can't be too mad at it.
So happy new year. I hope the last 10 days have been kind to you. They've been really good to me, and I hope the rest of the year keeps this energy!
Ok, now to what this blog was supposed to be about.
My friend and I were reminiscing recently about how when we were in CU, we would see other girls getting iPhones and iPods as gifts from their boyfriends or even boys that thought they were beautiful. Just like that! Ikr!
Back then, we were living with the CU tab. A struggle! My CU tab camera was dead by the 2nd year of use. Both the front and back cameras were heavily blurry. It was so sad. I couldn't even take pictures of the documents I needed. I had to borrow a tablet or iPad, or iPod from someone and find a way to send it to myself. And for some reason, the memory card slot stopped working, so I was stuck with only the 8GB that came with the tab.
Let's not even talk about my laptop that was actually a desktop in disguise. Weyrey dey disguise 😒Very heavy something that couldn't last 10 minutes without being connected to power. Such a disaster! I remember the story I told about how the entire chapter 2 of my project got missing on my computer here. That laptop brought me nothing but stress, pain and disgrace.
Life is in stages.
I also remember thinking one night during my time at Loughborough, what is even the best salary I could earn after finishing this degree? I got on Google and found out the highest salaries for entry-level. I saw the highest paying companies and the amount they paid. I put it in the income tax calculator to determine how much of that money I would get to take home cos UK taxes do usually suffocate us with her bumbum.
But that wasn't how the year 2021 started. That wasn't the salary I earned immediately after finishing my Master's. It took about a year of doing other interesting work to get to where I am today, and every stage of it culminated in me earning what I do today.
Life is in stages.
Let's not even talk about how much CU cafeteria suffered me that time and now how every meal I eat now is... another banger!
It SUCKS to be at the stage with the clunky laptop and bad camera tab, or not making the kind of money you want, or not seeing the amount of money you want in your account, or not eating the quality of food you want to be eating. Sometimes, as humans, when we're in a sad place or a place where it seems like everything is not working, we feel like we will remain there for the rest of our lives. The truth is, if you live long enough, that clunky laptop will be such a blip in your life's story. It'd be something you maybe tell your kids or bring up in friendly conversations to laugh about and later write in a blog like I'm doing now 😏
While it might seem like tough times dun dey last, I'm just here to remind you that life is in stages. The stage you're in doesn't run forever (except you die like today, but God forbid *in my Nigerian mother voice* that won't happen 😅). You'll get from the clunky laptop to the laptop where nothing lags and is so light you can hold it up with 2 fingers.
(this might be my confirmation and survivor's bias speaking but) I've been through it and seen the other side. And even in this new stage of my life, there are some not so glamorous parts that I'm sure I'll look back on fondly when I get to the next stage. And I'm sure the next stage will have its blemishes too that the stage after that will not have because as we said in life is but a dream, while our dream of the next stage might be perfect, the reality has its faults.
So regardless, hang in there. It does get better.
And sometimes, it could get better very quickly. As the saying goes, there are years when nothing happens and there are days when years happen.
I guess I could have integrated my rant about the randomness of new years and how life is in stages like the way debaters integrate rebuttals into their speech material but heck! where's the fun in that? 😏
Life is in stages. Enjoy the one you're in, and hold on for the next one.
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