3 things studying for exam taught me

I'll start reading tomorrow, I promise....... Then tomorrow will come, and I'll repeat the same phrase again, just to ease my mind. What I didn't realise was this: not only was I was putting myself under extreme pressure, I was also setting myself up for a panic attack.

Naturally I love to read, I can read anything I lay my eyes on, but let me have exams to write, and I practically have to force myself to read (I'm hoping that this doesn't happen to only me..............).
 So in the last 2 months, I had exams to study for (you'll know this if you are close to me)........... now this exam is a very difficult  and tasking one, so I knew that I had to prepare really hard, however,  the spirit of laziness in me decided to rear its head, and I kept proscatinating, I didn't start serious reading until about 6 weeks to the exam: ..........I can imagine what you are thinking yeah?

This was an exam that I needed at least 4 months of preparation for, me ke? as a super woman that I am now, I felt I could read up in 8 weeks and still dust the exams. But you know one thing about proscatination........ Once you start, you can't seem to stop. So my proscatination continued until my exam was 6 weeks away, . I woke up one morning, was reading through my mails, and I saw my exam ticket, Bam!!!!!! reality dawned..............  First thing that happened to me was a panic attack, a very serious one. Having panic attacks is a big deal for me, because I hardly ever get worried (ok maybe I do, I just cover it up well, but I still don't have panic attacks.)

After the first panic attack came the calm period where I became a planner. I started planning my study time amidst all my other engagements (note that it was a very hectic period at work, plus I had other things I had committed myself to). At the planning phase, all I wanted to do was cancel all my commitments............ and this affected my relationships/friendships a little bit *****covers face*****). At this stage I was very serious and I had a very short fuse for rubbish/time-wasting activities. I was taking out my frustrations out on other people....... friends and colleagues that bore the brunt of my frustrations, let me use this media to apologise to you all.......

Stage 3 came upon me soon enough, This stage was the worst of all. It was the stage of near-depression and almost full blown panic attack. At this stage I had less than 3 weeks to the exam and I was not even halfway through with my books. Meanwhile, all the study companions I had were already solving questions and practising with mock exams, and I wasn't even done reading. At this point, I was at the "Mo ku, Mo gbe Mo daran, owo ti jo na stage" that is, I am finished, my money is wasted !!!!!

 Yet I couldn't tell people how I felt. I only told a few people who tried to console me, but I was inconsolable. Mumsy would call and pray for me everyday, At this stage, my faith tripled, you know when you haven't really prepared for an exam, and someone prays for you, and you claim the prayer with a forceful Amen.....that was me at this stage.😂😂😂. This was when I remembered that I needed to fast also.............

Did I also tell you that I started getting all sorts of advise at this point. From 'stop reading, just start practising questions (I'm like, how do I solve questions when I don't know anything), to try to get summaries of all courses and read them (na beans? with just 3 weeks to go?). I got all sorts of suggestions, some  scared me, some gingered me, some got me upset, some had me laughing...........

Needless to say, those weeks were the most terrifying weeks of 2016!!! what am I saying? Those weeks were arguably the most terrifying weeks of my life!!!!!!! In all, I learnt that no matter how genius you think (or know) you are, if you don't plan and prepare, you are setting yourself up for major failure.....

P.S: The exams went well, but I'm still praying for awesome results.  You can assist me with prayers too..........

I hope you enjoyed this, please share with friends and family also.

Thanks.

Till next time,

Lade.........

Losing Dear Friends

Have you ever lost someone who used to be very close to you? Someone whom you think you couldn't live without? Now when I say lose, I don't mean losing the person to death, I mean losing the person to other forces such as ego, anger, childishness/immaturity, etc

This happened to me a while back, I had this friend I was very cool with. Very cool o. She was one of the very few friends that I used to hangout with. You know you have friends that you don't talk to everyday, but on days you do, you flow like there was never a break in communication between you. She was that kind of friend. Losing such friends hurt especially when you don't know what really went wrong.....

She was one of those in whom you could relay your deepest fears, She was one of those you could be goofy with, but hey .......... life happened.

Till this day, I still wonder what went wrong............. 

Maybe I didn't reach out as I should have (I know, I'm terrible at following up with friends, my good friends know that and take me as I am *covers face*)

Maybe I shouldn't have ignored the warning signs......

Maybe I was just being heady...........

Maybe, just maybe..........................................the friendship wasn't meant to be.

I keep thinking about this, but I have no answers yet. Maybe someday, the answers will come, but in the meantime, I'll just focus on being me, developing myself, being more caring, less impatient and enjoying life to the fullest..

So tell me, have you lost a friend before (not to death o)?

What happened?

How did you cope?

I'd love to hear from you.

Till next time...

Peace and love

Lade.

Mr Know It All

I know a loquacious big man

As loud as Mars

Who has a need to be heard whatever it takes

He always has something to say in every conversation

And likes to be the champion..................................

He has a story for everyone, be it false or true

He likes to be in peoples' faces, and I'm sure we all agree

That even though we laugh with him, we have a name for him

The one who likes to talk is known as Mr Know It All.................................

We all have that friend or colleague who fits the above description perfectly. They want to contribute to every conversation, and are not good at listening. They always have a story to tell.

They just love being the center of attraction. In fact they get upset if they make suggestions, and their suggestions are ignored ( who suggestion don epp?)

 They like to tell big stories about every situation,,and seems to know everybody (they also know some fictitious people). I know about this because I know a Mr-Know-It-All *****drum roll***

Yes I do............. and I must say he can be very annoying. He has a need to talk, that at times I think he likes to hear his voice ( If you've met a know-it-all before, you'll understand me). I absolutely dread going to meetings with him in attendance, because a 15 minute meeting will end up being 1 hour.

The only saving grace is that he's practically one of the nicest persons I've met in my whole life. the only but is his "Know-it-all" attitude.

P.S: If you do not know anyone, it means that YOU are the Know-It-All (mischievous grins)

So tell me, do you know any Mr or Miss Know-it-all?

How do you cope with them?

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Till my next post.

Peace and Love

Lade.

There was a country!!!

Once upon a time, they said that one dollar was equal to one naira ( I think I heard that $2=N1 at some point...... well, maybe before I was born)
Once upon a time, they said that you could easily and comfortably take a train from Ojuelegba to Ibadan.
Once upon a time, they said visa wasn't needed to travel to the UK.
There was a country!!!!!

Once upon a time, we were the giant of Africa (supposedly.........).
Once upon a time, 24/7 electricity was the norm, and not a luxury.
Once upon a time, university graduates didn't struggle to get jobs.
Once upon a time, buying fuel was as simple as A,B,C.......
There was a country!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once upon a time, we had leaders who cared about the citizens (or at least they pretended to care.........)
Once upon a time, we had journalists with scruples, that would post, and publish only the truth.
Once upon a time, we cared for one another as friends, neighbours and fellow humans.
Once upon a time...................................
Oh There was a country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where did we go wrong?
When did we lose all our values?
How did we lose our values?
When did we lose our sense of compassion?
When did we become the vulture that we are now?
How I wish we could go back to these old times!!!!!!
My dear country Nigeria, How I wish, we could restore all the lost hopes and values.

Oh How I wish, we could go back to the "Once upon a times!!!!!!!!!!!

Afterthoughts

Have you ever reflected on the happenings in your day, and thought of turning back time, so you could change a particular moment, situation, conversation or behaviour?

I know this happens to me almost all the time, as I sometimes don't know when to keep quiet. I review my day, and think of a certain event that occurred, and I end up chastising myself, like: "Lola why didn't you reply Mr X in this way" or "babes you shouldn't have reacted the way you did, when Bee said what she said"

I end up feeling really bad about some of my actions, and then decide to not react to those things again. Now I'm an 'all or nothing' kind of girl. It's either I go all out, or I don't go at all. Once I decide not to say act in a particular way again, I try 200% not to. Infact, I move away from anyone/ anything that seems like temptation to me. Let me give an instance where I was once trying to have a discussion with my colleague and friend, so I pulled him away from the crowd, and the guy said: "Kilo de t'on se fa mi? Se o fe naa mi ni?" In English, this means: Why are you pulling my hands, do you want to beat me ni? I was soooo dumbfounded, that I just quietly told him what I wanted to tell him, turned my back on him...................................Like I literally turned my back on him, the guy didn't know what hit him. He just realised that I stopped being friendly, and trust the extremist in me, I decided to milk the situation for all it was worth (mischievous grin).

So after my daily reviews, I almost always identify areas where I need to improve on,(my sharp mouth especially..... if you are close to me you'll know this) and I tell myself that I will improve, honestly I do, but.................................................... Gosh, it can be quite difficult, especially if you are like me, and your mouth is your major weapon.

I can honestly say that this daily reviews have helped especially because I don't like feeling foolish or guilty for acting in a particular way, and because it helps me avoid such awkward situations in future, though it sometimes feels like I have an affinity for awkward situations.

So tell me, have you ever felt like turning back the hands of time? Does this happen often, or as one-off situations?

Let me hear from you.

Love
Lade

My sub-conscious mind: Good or Bad?

Have you ever watched a movie or read a novel, and your subconscious mind twists the plot later on?

It happens to me practically all the time especially because I have an over-active imagination.. My subconscious mind practically puts me in the movie/ novel, and I change the plot to suit myself............ all in my sub consciousness.

Since I know that I have this particular characteristic, I tend not to read nor watch certain types of novels/movies. I absolutely DO NOT watch horror movies, neither do I read thrillers or hard core fiction.

It so happened that I was ill a few days back, and I had to stay off work for a couple of days. Now I am a very hyper-active person, so if I find myself stuck without work, I get bored............ almost to death. So here I am, weak, just recovering, and bored. To cure my boredom, I decided to watch a movie................................................................................................................... Now I don't watch movies unless I am absolutely jobless or bored, the way I was on this particular day, so I set out in search of an interesting movie to watch. After a few minutes,I came across the Harry Potter Series on my brother's laptop, so I decided against my better judgement to watch all the movies, from HP and the Philosopher's stone, to HP and the deathly hallows. Fantastic you'd say? NO!!!! It happened to be one of the greatest mistakes I'll make this year.

The movie was absolutely fantabulous if I say so myself. I recognised almost everyone from the book and I must say that my imagination of how quidditch should be played, was spot on, although a bit to the extreme( I know, my imagination works overtime).

I'm sure you'll be asking yourselves what the issues I had with the movie was? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

 It was veryyyy interesting, until the flashes gave me a headache the size of China, and I became an older version of Hermione in my dreams ( I had to be Hermione, cos I'm smart like that *tongue out*). So I slept after watching HP 1 and 2, and all of a sudden, I became Hermione and I was on an adventure with Harry and Ron. I had such a restless sleep that I woke up worse off than before I slept.

Here I am, just recovering from malaria, and I was trying to uncover the secrets behind the Philosopher's stone with Harry and Ron.................... Needless to say, I felt battered and bruised when I woke up, especially after I fought off 'You Know Who' in one episode. (laughs)

Alright, enough of my ramblings. Let me know, does this happen to you also, or am I a weirdo? Am I the only one whose subconscious mind twists a plot to suit her?

Your comments and feedback are welcome!!!!

Love

Lade

My Vacay Experience

Hello Everyone,

I've been away from writing for almost a year now, but I had an experience that I had to share with you all, so here I am, back to what I love to do (despite my laziness, I admit, I am a lazy wanna-be writer) smiles.........

So a few months back, I finally decided to go on a much needed vacation; I mean I'd been working for almost 3 years, non-stop without going on vacation....( for my mind I be workaholic na, even though I know I didn't go on vac all this while cos I had exams............).

So after a lot of discussions and planning, I was allowed to go on leave (jumps up in the air, and opens teeth). I had planned to travel when I finally have my leave approved, but I didn't want to go alone, so I had another dilemma....... whom to go with? Fortunately, my FADD fitfam, sis and friend (Tayo Lekan-Agbaje) was going to Dubai, so I decided to tag along.

Being a first-time traveller, I decided to leave the handling to her, I already had my passport, so I just sent her d front page, and God bless her, she did all the booking; ticket, hotel, visa etc.

Did I mention that I had doubts about going? I almost didn't want to go, so I decided to do something; tell 3 people whose opinion I value a lot, and get their answers. If their answer is no, then I'll convince myself not to go. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for my pocket, everyone of them felt I more than deserved the vacation........Dubai here I come baby *shining teeth*

Tayo and I had planned to leave on Monday, so we were to meet at the airport early enough, way before our flight time cos of all the checks to be done ( we travelled during the Ebola scare period), and cos of Monday traffic in Lagos, but this particular Monday, it was as if everything was in our favour, as there was practically no traffic, and we got to the airport on time.

At the airport was where my education began.........  I mean, I'm a graduate of OAU, and a Chartered Accountant, but I didn't know a lot about the ways and minds of people ( and for my mind before, I be human psychologist.......for my mind......)

I'd always heard and talked about how corrupt Nigerians are, how unscrupulous some people are, how our government officials just take all the money once they get into office, and so on........ What I'd never really talked about nor thought about was how corrupt and unscrupulous we are. You ask me, who are the 'we' I'm talking about? My answer is we, that is, you, me, the common amn on the street, the receptionist at the office, the office assistant, the immigration officers that will stamp your passport at the airport, the airline officials that will give you your boarding pass, the custom officials, those that will check-in your luggage, those that will scan and so many others I can't remember.

Let me start from the check-in counter; Did I tell you we flew by Emirates? Yes we did!!! When we got to the check-in counter ,Tayo said we should get an exit door seat( I hope I got the name right sha? I be JJC on top this matter ooooo), so Tee met with an Emirates officer, who took us to meet his colleagues. After a little discussion, we got the seat.............. at a price of 2k, I'm sure you've guessed already.

Next, we went through the immigration, where we were supposed to submit the Ebola forms we filled, and for them to check our passport. At this point, Tayo had already told me not to act like a JJC( that is, a first time traveller, but, as much as I tried, my passport still gave me away, as it had never been stamped, lol. Anyway, my JJC self couldn't even pull the "I'm a regular flier look" as I still had the this is my first time look, it got to the point where we ( Tayo and I) had to start explaining why I had never travelled, and to explain things better, Tayo told them that I worked for an oil and gas firm, that I had never travelled before, because I haven't felt like. I even had to show them my ID card, which led to the officials asking for money for BF, I sha had to part with 1k so I could collect my passport, and move to the next phase of stamping and extortion.

We were begged and hounded for money at every check point in the airport, that it got me wondering if the airport officials don't get paid their salaries, if the salary they are paid cannot sustain them, or if they are just used to begging and exhorting travellers.

After all the hassle we went through at the various checkpoints at the airport, it was a relief to finally board the plane for our flight. A few hours later, we arrived in Dubai, and oh my, was I impressed or what?

I was dumbfounded when I saw their structures, the efficiency of their airport staff and their immigration officers, their neatness in their white kaftans, that I naively thought I was in mini-heaven (ask me how I know what heaven looks like).

I was soon dispelled of this notion, as I realised that corruption is almost everywhere in the world. Let me explain what I mean; In Dubai, it is not an offence to inflate the price of a good to a tourist, I mean, you can sell an item that normally goes for 50AED to a naive tourist for 300AED, and nobody will query you or punish you for that.

As if that is not enough, if you realise that you've been duped, and you return to the shop where you were duped, everyone around you will automatically switch to Arabic, that is, they'll act like they don't understand English at all.............. Please don't act surprised!!!!!! I think that's what makes us human

.

Another way you can be duped in Dubai is to take a taxi( which is often the best bet if you don't know your way around), but you have to be sharp. The starting rate for any taxi is 3AED, so whenever you take a taxi, you have to be sure that it's meter is set at 3AED, otherwise, OYO is your case, lol........

You should also try to have an idea of the average price you'll pay to go to certain destinations, because if you don't know, you stand a chance of being duped( Ha Ha ha, I got you there, didn't I? ). Most taxi drivers will take the longest route to a place, so they can get paid more, well......... I told you it's legal to extort people in Dubai, so.......(shrugs).

If you know your way around though, you can take the Metro to reduce your chances of being duped. Remember, I said that you have to know your way around, because if you don't, you'll probably get lost, like we almost did........ laughing sooo hard now that I remember the event, but it wasn't funny then. We had this big box (Tayo always insists that we carry a box, so we can dump all our purchases into it to avoid losing anything). On this day though, the box was more of a burden, than a saviour *grins widely*

Let's get back to the matter......

This trip made me realise that corruption exists everywhere in the world, only that the degree of corruption varies across each country/ continent.

In all, it was a very enjoyable trip,( if you don't look at all the little hitches), it was also a kind of fit trip, as we worked out everyday (what do you expect, when you travel with a FADD like Tayo?).......

I really enjoyed myself, and look forward to more trip/ eye openers like this.

It's time for me to put my pen down, till another time.

Hugs and Kisses,

Till the next time.

Lade