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Chronicles of Borrowing
Although it seems like all I read these days is about the Elections in Nigeria, I have found the time to follow this month’s theme on borrowing. The reason why I have read every post this month religiously is that I also have my share of the high and lows of borrowing. At one point in my life I decided to go into business to support my family, I didn’t want to go look for a 9-5 job because of my spouse’s vocation, I needed the freedom of a business to support him at any time he required. After thinking through what I wanted to do, I decided to…
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The Contentment Struggle
Back in my university days, I had a particular dorm mate that was notorious for always borrowing stuff. There was absolutely no limit to what he would ask for. Personal stuff like briefs, boxers, roll-on deodorants, etc., were not spared! Interestingly, he was never bothered by the fact that he often gets these items at the lenders’ emotional expense or discomfort. Sadly, many of us, who were his dorm mates, found it incredibly hard to come out with the blunt, single word of, no. Of course, we were acting the Good Neighbours. We also did not want to hurt his feelings. Well, what makes it worse is how he sometimes…
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Money Matters
When I was growing up, my Dad ran a very successful business and Mum worked at home; okay I would have said a stay-at-home Mum, but I have never been comfortable using that phrase to describe Mum because it somewhat has a way of conjuring a mental picture of a woman who is home all day doing nothing or watching TV – well just throw in a few chores. Okay back to Mum. The phrase just doesn’t suit her. She had nine kids to bring up, two or more extended family per time living with her, and several others dropping in to visit, or spend a few days or weeks…
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Doing the maths
I had a casual attitude to borrowing growing up. I remember my youngest sister looking at me one day and saying ‘How can you sleep well at night knowing you have borrowed so much?’ She just could not live like that. That is inter-sibling borrowing never mind going outside the family. Occurs to me now that people have different leanings naturally. To be fair, she is still like that. I remember begging her to collect a credit card about 1 year ago. I was encouraging her to seize the opportunity of being offered one to do shopping after which she could give herself years to pay off gradually. She refused…
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Self-love & self-reboot
It is February when ‘everyone’ is busy getting ready for Valentine – did you just say not everyone under your breath as you read this? Not to worry, I shall oblige you and substitute the word with the phrase ‘many people across the world’. Welcome to February 2023! Often termed the ‘month of love’, this second month of the year in the Julian calendar is originally from the word Februarius which is a Latin word that means ‘to purify’. The Romans reserved Februarius as the month of purification and cleansing holding the February celebrations every 15th Day of the month. Then along came Valentine’s Day on February 14th which celebrates…
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Take a moment…
It happened again. I tried, I really did try to make sure it didn’t, but it happened again. Another Christmas and New Year season happened and I was overwhelmed with events and activities. I thought if I contracted the cooking – which usually takes a lot of time – I would be fine and finally get to enjoy the season without the stress, but it still felt like there was a lot to do, and I think I missed a moment … Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’ve been enjoying our weekly articles so far. There’s only so many ways we can encourage each other to grasp the New…
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A new start
After the year we have just been through, sitting down to write the usual New Year’s resolutions may be daunting. One of the quotes that have stayed with me since 1998 is by Matthew Ashimolowo – he may be the originator ‘Unless you leave this shore, you will not find another harbour’. The key issue for me is that I am not a quitter, I don’t like to admit defeat, I stick at things until I get to the prize, doggedly determined. Then the time came when I felt pressed enough to leave my job…. I had heard it said and read in the papers that having a baby negatively…
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Experiencing the new
…5,4,3,2,1, Happy New Year!!!!” That’s the way some people like to begin the new year; watching the minutes right down to the final seconds of the old, and then a sigh of relief and jubilee – we made it into the New Year! I was dancing around in church at the time like many others do. However you chose to enter this year, I hope you had a wonderful transition. Now we are here, with our goals and resolutions, we have to get busy and make something of the time we have. I know someone who started the year 2020 with such excitement and anticipation of a new decade, when one…
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Happy New Me
Every time we start a New Year, there is a certain hope and contagious expectation with which most people start a year. Somehow there is a new surge of faith that says that the life that has been afforded is a divine sign that there is going to be change for the better in the future. With this new surge, several people start out with New Year resolutions that sadly do not last the first week of the year. I was on a Radio show the other day and one of the members of the panel said that New Year resolutions should be scrapped! Perhaps she had seen enough…
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Continuing Forever 2
I remember chatting with Uche after reading her post of last week . I could perfectly relate to the disappearance of her friend as I have had a friend do the same thing .The difference however was that my own friend did it more than once and although initially I panicked, with time I recognized the pattern. Long story short is whenever things were not working well for my friend and she was in a seemingly bad place, she would have an excuse for malice. She would cut off and not respond to any form of communication until she had something to ‘shine’ or “show off”. Then she would return…
