They say it all begins with hey, and again at “I do” but I remember mine started with do you think we should change our relationship?
I remember being on the queue and pulling the hair of this person in front of me. She turned, shocked, I don’t know what I was expecting considering that I was tugging on another person’s hair voluntarily…
I don’t remember how we became friends or the ways our ways just started to cross more intentionally, but I remember the constant meeting on the tram to work, the short walks to our respective offices, now, all the morning and evening text full of warm wishes and encouragement at yet surviving another day. The random outburst of support, the firm affirmation of value, the validator that you are…
He said to me, “are you Nigerian?” I was surprised that he asked that not because I didn’t think that I was Nigerian but that he could pinpoint me to my origin, home in the sea of nationalities after being so different in a place where home is far away, to finally met a person who sees me in the way my people see me because he had lived amongst my people. I would later leave that conversation understanding all the ways I miss home, in the subtlety that I didn’t even care to pay attention and gaining a friend through the bond of familiarity.
I remember walking into a party of a friend of a friend and coming across this person I immediately thought to myself was fascinating but on his arm was this beautiful lady that I assumed was his girlfriend. He was one of those people I met knowing that our paths were meant to cross that there was something about their lives that added up in the chapters of my life. We didn’t talk much, but from the first words I spoke to him and his few answers back, I confirmed it was meant to be.
You are someone I met by serendipity because I think you were already friends with another, I remember being dragged along to a friends house only to meet a woman who I thought to myself at the time was stunning not because of her physical attributes but her aura. Now you have gone on to become my sister, the time in spent in encouragement, mindful wit, and support… You know who you are.
I didn’t know that the decision to take that first apartment I have ever lived in by myself in a secluded part of a strange city life threw me, would end becoming a decision about meetings and addition. Nothing prepared me for the lady who opened her apartment door to me when I requested if I could keep some food items in her fridge as I was still setting up my apartment. Yes, sure were the very statement that started this life of sisterhood. Even then, she added her brother’s girlfriend to the mix and doubled my chances for love and friendship. Can I say thank you? who do I thank? God, providence, or you? Well, I thank all the roads that led here.
Who would have thought that the text I wrote based on the advertisement for a roommate on a class page would lead me to a new set of family from a different part of the earth. Gaining elder brothers and sisters who brought others with them. The unflinching support of persons who just want you to be happy and will never fail to give you a piece of their mind on how they think you should do better but are also proud of all the ways you are already standing strong.
He said to me “are you not a christian? You better try your best on this, if not, I will travel to slap you personally”😃 ironically, those were the very words I needed to hear to juggle my faith at a moment when even the impossible seemed impossible. Thank you.
When you walked into my life, it was on one of my hardest days but somehow you made it feel like a reunion. I looked at your dimples, it is weird that the parts of me you saw were not the ones I typically showed people the first time. Thank you for the bag, for picking the call, for meeting me at the junction that would forever alter my life, for waiting with me, for handing me over, and for all the other days in between that you have listened to me whine and disappoint you again despite your severe warnings. Yeah, I know, you say it a lot “I know you will not listen” 😃
You came into my life minutes after I just heard disappointing news, and somehow you made a down day a pleasant memory. Thank you for the breakfast that came with friendship. Thank you for the world of people you opened up to me thereafter.
Ah, how could I forget you? First, I’d like to thank the lady that decided to lease her apartment to me for free during law school break because I think that act of kindness was what led to meeting you. Can we also thank your friend that knocked on my door to offer me food? I thank myself for saying yes and bringing my plates in a hurry just to listen to you say “hello, I am..” those words ushered you into the chapters of my life that I will forever hold. You made me feel ecstasy, I learnt what falling heads over heels meant because of you. Thank you for the gorgeous pictures of me you showed, the ones you took and the ones you painted.
Standing outside a lecture hall, waiting for another lecture to end is the scene that brought your artistic presence into my life, you who I will say was my first ever conscious crush. I am still in awe of how your presence sparked curiosity in me so much that I interrupted your discussion just to get your name.
Thank you to that boy who walked with me to fix a problem I was having in school and brought me drugs and fruits when I fell sick shortly after. Thank you to the man who let me go despite how much he wanted to keep me for himself. You are one of a kind.
Thank you for walking into my life after a prayer, for your solid wisdom, your jesting, the way you show complete acceptance and love, for your arrogance about the things you believe is right, things you will call principles. Thank you for respecting my silence when I don’t seem to want to talk and for calling me out on perspectives I miss in my selfishness.
I remember you coming to lay down beside me because you thought I was in pain, little did you know that you also waited for the pain in my heart to feel bearable. If you don’t know, that was the day that changed everything between us.
Thank you for showing me what desire looks like. Now, I know the name when I see it reflected in my lover’s eye, know I know how to want myself passionately too.
You were supposed to ask me out for your friend but then you walked into my life and changed all the ways I will understand friendship, you let me whisper my dreams but you became the canvass with which the colours were brought to life, and then you brought more people.
These stories mark the entrance of several amazing people in my life but this is not all, it is constantly being written daily but as this fresh chapter of a new year begins, I want to take this moment to count the blessings that come in human form.
Hugs and Kisses
Dcconoisseur.
Connoisseur of Memories 