2021 IN REVIEW

 So I have a lot to be thankful for this year!

This has absolutely been my worst yet best year. 

The year started off really terribly for me, barely 2 seconds ( and I say that figuratively) into the year, I get a call that one of my best friends died!! My world turned over, I'm not sure it's even righted itself till now (probably won't be having tears in my eyes as I write this if it had). I remember thinking I would not be able to get through the year, the pain was intense, it was excruciating, I was barely able to get from one day to the next. But God taught me a very valuable lesson through that experience, He's still teaching me alot through it by the way; I learnt just how fickle life actually is, how frail, how we can be here today and before the end of the day we won't be here, I mean Stephen posted a video on WhatsApp at about 7:15 am on the day he died! So I've learned to value life, and not just my life but the lives of others. Before this year, I've gotten so angry at someone and the person said he'd just die and leave me, and I said "kuku die make I rest", but now that I have actually understood how final death is, I know I'll never say that again!!! And know I understand better just how great a gift life is and I'm more intentional about making my life count before God because really, He could stop my breath any second. So, I'm grateful firstly for life this year. 

The second thing I'm grateful for this year is health! I remember in 2019, my friend gave birth and someone had to stay with her in the hospital before she was discharged, I opted to do so, to stay with her and also because I'd never been admitted and had prayed never to be so I figured that was going to be my only "sleeping in the hospital" experience, boy did I know😅😅😅! Come June this year, dem admit me for hospital. The whole thing started like joke ooo, before "you go talk one talk two" (my mum's version is "say Jack Robinson"), I don reach hospital bed!! I had Cholera. The most annoying thing was, I didn't get the Cholera from mangoes like anyone would fear, I got it from one piece of pork. After staying in the hospital for 5 days, I was discharged. I went home and discovered I had malaria! So all in all, I think I was on medications for about 2 weeks. The entire experience was a humbling one for me, I learnt to appreciate health, and I got a new understanding of illness, now when I pray for someone who's ill, I do so with a new understanding of how terrible illness is. Was that the last time I fell ill this year? I wish! I think I had malaria about four or five times after that and I'm talking since July. So, this year I've also learnt a lot about about how important the good health God gives me is, and I'm very grateful for it. 

Another thing I'm grateful for this year is my family, well I'm grateful every year for my family but more so this year. We've been hit by very great storms in 2021 from every angle the devil could think of; health, finances, accidents, evil premonitions, evil colleagues... it was like the devil decided that he had a score to settle with my family this year but God being God, the devil was defeated this year, as in other years and we're ending this year in firmer footing than we began it. So I'm grateful for that. 

I'm grateful also for my friends. I feel this year God decided to let me see just how wonderful the friends He gave me are. So, back to the story of my bout with Cholera, I had eaten the meat that caused all the wahala on a Wednesday ( 16th June precisely) then on Thursday in school I stated feeling sick, but I just brushed it off and didn't take it seriously. Went home that day and my sister was in a worse shape than I was.  She didn't seem to be getting any better so I called my mum at night and told her,  I also told Sokombaa my brother and very early the next morning (I doubt he slept at all that night), he was at my door, at this time my sister could barely walk. That's how he had to go to the road and look for Keke to come into Rusau and take my sister to the Clinic. Then we had to go do tests and I had no idea where the place we were to go do the tests was (at this time, I still didn't think I was going to be sick oo), then David saw Sokombaa in school and came to help me take the blood samples for tests –suffice to say, he dashed me the whole of his Friday. Then Aondona, I think he's name would probably be one of the most recurring because he did all the running around to get us drugs and drips and literally everything we had to buy outside the Clinic. Then I called my friend Blessing and told her I won't be coming to School that day because my sister was sick, barely an hour later, she had arrived at the Clinic, she kept going and coming through out my stay, bringing anything she knew I loved to spur me into eating because I was not eating anything. While all these things were happening, I had no idea I was getting worse ooo, but apparently people who saw me could tell. When David came back with the tests results, he saw that I was looking worse and cajoled me to go home and pack since I was going to have to stay with my sister in the hospital, later he told me that his plan was to have me go home and pack so that if I collapsed, he could bring me back and I'd have things to stay in the hospital. Like play like play, I nearly collapsed, he had to literally carry me all the way from my house back to the school's Clinic because at that point, I honestly could no longer walk. On the way, we met Oliver, Segun, Eze and Jerry with Sokombaa and they were the ones that now joined to carry me to the hospital. It was about 7 pm when Sokombaa called my friend Janet and told her I was on admission, she had only come back from school minutes ago but at about 8 pm, she was in the hospital. Now, she had a very long day and was going to have another long one the next day but she stayed the whole night with me in the hospital. The worst part, she didn't sleep! I couldn't sleep and I just kept calling  her name the whole night, and she didn't complain. Then I finally managed to tell my best friend I was sick, he almost ran mad!!😅😅 It's hilarious now but it wasn't then. He was calling me only God knows how many times to ask how I was, Senenge heard my voice and started crying, Biyi was flooding me with messages. At this point I'm just going to be listing the names of everyone who carried the matter like the illness was theirs, and believe me I was amazed! My Sakie, Daniel, Tomisin, Biodun, Ojore, Lizzy, Ivy, Bunky, Nick, Ephraim, Comfort, ShuGs, Sir Chinedu, Charles, Mitong.... the people were plenty, I didn't even know I had that much people who loved me!!! And if I didn't write your name, don't think I didn't value all you did for me, I did and I still do, it's the frailty of my memory that has caused your name not to appear.  So, I'm saying thank you, to all of you whose names I mentioned and to those whose names I didn't, I'm really grateful!!! And these aren't the only friends God had blessed me with this year. Now, I'm naturally not a very social person, but this year God blessed me with friends that I believe will last for seasons. I'm grateful to God for all my friends and to you the said friends, I'm grateful that I get to call you friend!!!

This year, I'm grateful for all the lessons on humility that God has thought me. Pride has been a thorn in my flesh for a long time and I've been praying to God and working on it too. This year, it seems God decided to really out hand in the matter and He kept putting me in situations that would leave me more humble than I was before the incident, and it happened so many times, I learnt humility by force. There were so many situations in this year that I had to sit down and really access myself and learn humility, from not getting the grades I felt I deserved in the courses I put in my best efforts to clearing courses that while I was writing them I knew only God could help me in them, to all the times I carried myself and put inside wahala only to have God save me in ways that would leave no doubt as to Who did it!! I'm immensely grateful for these lessons on humility because I've become utterly dependent on God and Him alone. All the cockiness in me has been completely destroyed and know more than saying it, I truly I'm in a place where I'm completely dependent on God, and I'm grateful for that because my life's better. 

The next thing I'm grateful for is my relationship with God. This year has exposed me to a newer level of intimacy with God that I'm extremely grateful for! God has been shaping me in various ways this year, pruning and kneading and I'm a better Christian as result. In this year, certain things have happened and I've asked myself who knew I could get to such a standing with God, some other times, I think of things I used to do or struggle with and I'm amazed that I could get to a point where those struggles are history!! So I'm grateful to God for the work He's doing in my life.  

I'm grateful to God for the way He's shaped my character this year. Subtle changes having been occurring in my life that I almost missed until I'd take time to reflect and realized that I've become different. From positions of responsibility He gave me which have made me sit up and become responsible, to promptings in my spirit and through others that have caused me to really think about my behaviour and break terrible habits I had. Some changes are monumental, some are so little, but I'm grateful for all of them because I know that I'm leaving this year a better person than I started. 

I'm grateful for the people God has put before me to set the pace, to let me know my dreams are valid and achievable. I'm someone who dreams and sometimes gets scared of the things in my head, I'd have a dream or a goal and later I'll think on it and begin to modify it because it suddenly seems too out-of-reach. But this year, God let me see the likes of Sir Chinedu, Sokombaa, Joanna, Sir Kingsley, Comfort, Aunty Seyel and recently; Ma'am Tofunmi and Sir T.K. so that I can know that my dreams, whether in my walk with God, my career path, my habits, my general outlook on life are valid and attainable. So I'm grateful for the way God has put these people before me to keep shining the light.

Finally, I'm grateful for my blog.  When I was going to the University in 2017, among other things, I'd told my best friend that I was going to start a blog and a YouTube channel. We did research on them, laid plans and all, then I just left the whole idea. I'd toy with the idea once in a while, tweak it, change the name, then drop it. And it continued for years. Then this year I decided to seriously work on the plans and not let the year end without me achieving them. I started very early into the year sef, in January, but that's how I lost momentum, I'd even filmed my first video for the channel (I no longer even have the video), written out topics I wanted to talk about in my blog and all that, lo and behold, I lost the zeal. In June, I even started a blog, but I've now lost it. Then one day on November, I just decided to go for it and here I am. I didn't end up starting the YouTube channel, hopefully next year( hold me accountable to this), but I got to start the blog and I'm grateful for the privilege to come here and say my views on issues as they are laid in my heart.  And I'm grateful for all of you who come time and again to read my blog. God bless you for me!!

So, this is it! My 2021 and my gratitude story for it. As we end this year, what are you grateful for?

Love, 

Achenyo.