“That’s just not my thing”

“Love is not easy, not comfortable but love is more beautiful when it undergoes changes”. – Nse Ikpe-Etim

I believe that one of the things that make a marriage or relationship to last long is, knowing who your partner is and not expecting or assuming you’ll make him/her change.

Jack and Rose have been together for 3 years and on all special occasions, whether Jack was in town or not, Rose never got any gifts or cards. The most she’d ever gotten was a love note, and at the time, they were having a mini fight.

To be fair, Rose had known that birthdays, and other “special days” didn’t mean anything to Jack. Most of his family members didn’t even remember their own birthdays. Others had to check their birth certificate when asked. So yes, she had a clue.

But why did she feel so sad this time around. Jack called to say “Happy Valentine’s” , but that was it. They met up later in the day and spoke for some time. A few hours later, Rose said, “I’m going home”. Jack asked for a goodbye kiss or hug, but Rose shrugged and walked away.

Rose had reminded Jack of Valentine’s Day everyday for the past 2 weeks. She wasn’t expecting much. All she wanted to see was effort. Nothing expensive, something simple, basic, it didn’t matter.

Jack called a million times later that night, which meant he knew Rose wasn’t happy, but he didn’t ask. Rose answered each time he called and they talked of random things. The next morning, Jack called and asked, “Were you angry cause I didn’t get you anything for Valentines?” Rose said “No”. Then he blurted, “ I’m sorry, but you know that’s just not my thing”.

Charity begins at home

As far back as I can remember,the one prayer point I never fail to say each day is,…“Father Lord, bless me and bless the people around me. Also, bless me so that I can be a blessing to everyone around me”. I say this like an anthem, subconsciously.

I school in the University of Nigeria and every now and then, actually everyday, blind, deaf, dumb, epileptic, critically ill, basically people with different kinds of illnesses walk into our classrooms to solicit for financial aid. It isn’t uncommon to us. We have gotten accustomed to it.

For me, I’ve been on this campus since 2012 and I believe I’ve become familiar with a couple of faces.

Being on campus for this long, I’ve come across some of these people whom I’ve seen before, perhaps in 2015 and they come in and repeat the same stories, atimes with the same photographs (in cases like victims who were set ablaze). This made me wonder if they were making these stories up.

For some time I decided I wouldn’t help the familiar ones and other times I gave reluctantly. I was really skeptical about the whole situation.

Fast forward to a few months ago, I was in deep thought, wondering when God would bless me financially to be able to help others and then a thought was laid in my heart. “Everyday you have more than enough money in your purse to last you the whole day, that extra 500 or 1000naira can put a huge smile on someone’s face”.

It isn’t our duty to decipher if someone is telling us the truth or not. If you are in a position to help, give freely. Give with a cheerful heart.

You want 1 million? Who have you helped with the 1000 you have? Charity, they say, begins at home.

P.S. Home in this context means your immediate surrounding,

Love and light,

Pinkhy

 

All the tea from my first TEDx event

I’ve watched TED talks for so long. My favourite being “Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model” by Cameron Russell. This particular talk birthed my relationship with TED.

Personally, my TEDx experience started the minute I applied to be a volunteer for TEDxNzastreet. The whole process was the full package.

This event took place in Enugu, Nigeria. The theme: Divergent thinking.

Application

TEDx is a community I absolutely adore for all that it represents.I was super excited when I saw the call for volunteers flyer. I quickly applied.

Why I volunteered

I became a volunteer because I’m deeply captivated by learning and spreading ideas, which is what TED aims at.

I was also in dire need to meet different people who were passionate with TED as I am.

Furthermore, I wanted to put to test my ability to work in a team with new people.

The day before the event

Prior to this day, we had several sessions where we were briefed on our tasks. I remember the atmosphere of the evening before the event. So much still needed to be done. All hands were on deck thankfully.

What I missed out on

I’d have loved to listen to all the speakers. I only got snippets of the talks, which was a little bit disheartening.

What I gained

I met extraordinary people. The volunteers, speakers, organizers put in so much time and effort in making this event a worthwhile experience.

And ofcourse, I learnt how to work under pressure.

At the end of the day, I was overwhelmed, exhausted but most importantly, so fulfilled. It was a deeply rewarding experience. I remember still being so hyped weeks later.

This was the first edition of TEDxNzastreet and I’m looking forward to another one.

Have you attended a TEDx event before? How was it?

Lastly, Happy New year!!

 

Confessions of a Recovering social media addict

I quit instagram on December 31st ,2016.

• Reason: All i did was “like” pictures every other minute and i spent a better half of my day on it. I wasn’t really gaining anything.
• My masterplan: To quit till I was able to control the number of hours I spent on instagram. (Btw…this was probably the worst plan ever…wanna know why? Keep reading)

Why was the plan a bad idea? : Instagram wasn’t eating up my time anymore, so i found something else to obsess over..>Snapchat. The same routine of always checking the application continued. You’d think at this point I’d realise that quitting wasn’t going to solve this addiction. Well, I didn’t realise this. So yet again, I quit Snapchat in August, 2017.

At this point I want you to guess what happened next..

I decided to go back on Facebook. I joined facebook in 2012 and quit in 2014. I’ve never really been into facebook so I thought there’s absolutely no way I’m going to get addicted. Well, I didn’t obsess over it for the first few months. But the addiction slowly crept in.

Photocredit:burningrivercheonicles

Epiphany: I had a random conversation with an acquaintance and I remember him saying that socail media wasn’t the problem rather, it was my inability to control myself.

Photo credit: github

Solution In progress: I’ve realised that being idle pushes me to go online. Hence, over the past few months, I’ve tried to be time-conscious and practice productivity a lot more. It’s safe to say that my recovery is going well.

Quitting is never the solution. We’re all just trying to evolve and be better versions of ourselves. The solution to most of our problems lies in identifying why the problem is there in the first place.

Till next time,

Pinkhy

The Art of Advertising

At the moment, my carry-on bag essentials can’t be complete without a pack of minimie chinchin.

Let’s rewind to the moment this love began…

Earlier this year when the Big brother Naija franchise aired, my friend and I constantly ridiculed the product minimie. Our conversations usually looked somewhat like this…Fastforward a few months later, I went shopping at a supermarket. While at the counter, I saw the minimie chinchin and decided to add a pack to my cart.

….And I guess that was the beginning of my love relationship with minimie chinchin.

The reality meets up to the ads. The reality is way better than the ads.An average consumer usually knows what he or she wants but

●doesnt know where to find it

●wants a cheap commodity

●wants a product that lives up to expectation.

As a brand, if you’re able to identify these problems and find solutions to them, I guarantee you’ll be successful.

SOLUTIONS

Using minimie as an example,

I believe my love for minimie chinchin is still strong because it is literally everywhere.  That solves the first problem. They made their product ACCESSIBLE.

It comes in various sizes. I’m not sure but I’ve had two different sizes. There’s a pack that sells for 50naira and a snack jar that sells for 1600naira. This solves another problem. It is AFFORDABLE.

Advertising only works up until the first time the product is being consumed. If the product doesn’t meet up to the standard you’ve shown off in the adverts, most of your customers will be one-time customers. If the consumers like it on first-try, they’ll definitely come back for more. This is where ATTENTION comes to play.

Master the 3As of Advertising and your product will survive this country.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Till next time,

Yours truly.

Is your love compatible?

While lecturing, my Entomology teacher talked about a couple who came to her clinic to have their blood test taken. After carrying out the tests, their blood group was compatible. Yay!! Everything in order, just one last thing: the gentleman was HIV positive and the lady wasn’t. Though the couple already knew this. The lady begged for her report to be manipulated to read HIV positive too. Her judgement was already clouded because she was so deep in love already.

So often we hear about couples being asked to go take bloodtests. Do you know your genotype? Are you two compatible? You’re wondering, what exactly is this genotype thing.

Genotype is simply a collection of genes passed from parents to the children. There are 3 major groups: AA, AS, SS.

AA individuals can marry anyone. It’s even advised for AA individuals to marry AS individuals to eradicate the likelihood of SS in the society.

AS and AS individuals getting married is also risky because an SS child could be born.

SS and SS individuals shouldn’t even think about it. It’s a very risky situation. SS is an abnormal trait.

The need to know your genotype before marriage cannot be over emphasized. Couples are advised to know their genotypes at the early stage of their relationship before they become deeply rooted in love.

Are you willing to give birth to an SS child? In all honesty, you’ll only be subjecting that innocent child to so much pain and agony.

In as much as there’s now an ongoing stem cell research/cure, I believe prevention is better than cure.

I hope we all find a love that’s compatible for us and help create an SS-free world.

Till next time…

 

 

 

3 insanely improved ways to pick a President for Nigeria

Life lately

Hi everyone !!!

The official story regarding my absence is as a result of work-related issues but that’s a lie.  The unofficial story is..I started a new chapter of my life (more like..same chapter, different path) and 2018 took me by surprise, even after all the prep.

I got so swamped with so many things that took priority and my attention but I’m so happy to be writing this post.

I hope you guys are well. Let me know in the comment section. Tell me how you’re doing, what you’ve been up to… I’d really love to know.

I really can’t believe the first half of the year is almost up. How time flies!

Lately I’ve been,

Eating for breakfast: Smoothie bowls with groundnuts only because it’s the only thing I can take by 6am.

Inspired by: literally everything I set my eyes on. Human beings, my environment, movies, everything!!!

Wearing on repeat: my white uniform,duh…I really don’t have a choice here. Issa must.

Reading: Downsize this by Michael Moore. Actually re-reading it for the 3rd time. That book is golden!

Eyeing up: Ouidah, Benin. Recently fashion blogger, Cassie daves and a few friends stayed at a lake house in Ouidah.Check it out here. I’m literally so obssessed.

Adjusting to: my new crazy 6:30am to 5pm schedule. How am I still alive???

Trying to: make new friends. For some weird reason, it hasn’t been easy but I’m honestly not bothered.

Loving: watching movies for the sole purpose of learning camera angles.

Finally,…thanks for reading and waiting on me!!!

Hope you have a lovely weekend. Cheers!!!

New year resolutions Versus goals

Its less than 48 hours into 2018 and of course I’m pretty excited. For me, one of the best parts of a new year is making my resolutions just like the rest of the world. Unfortunately, by April I’ve usually forgotten what my resolutions are. I feel resolutions are too safe. Most times wheb you don’t achieve them (assuming you even remember what they were), you’re still chill about it. They aren’t authoritative.

After I noticed how laidback I was about resolutions, I decided to switch things up.  So in 2017, I decided to ditch making resolutions and i set goals. I wrote them out and allocated to frames to each one. I was a precise about each one.

For the outcome; I achieved a major part of my goals within the last few months of the year. I had a lot I pitfalls and setbacks along the way but overall, I made progress.

Without further ado, setting goals wins. Now, setting goals I pretty easy but the key to achieving it is: you gotta be very precise. What is your game plan for 2018? What exactly do you want to achieve? When do you want to achieve it? Is it even possible to achieve this? You have to answer all those questions.

Using two examples;

Normally I would write: Gain weight before the end of 2016. This is a very wrong approach because I wouldn’t achieve it. I might an up gaining too much.

The proper way: Gain 10kg before June. In reality, I don’t really need to gain 10kg before June, but having it at the back of my head makes me get closer to my ideal weight.

Another example;

Normally I would write: I want to write more articles this year. This is so vain. Its empty.

Instead write: I want to write 96 articles this year, 8 each month and twice a week. This I very attainable and realistic depending on your schedule.

Bottomline is: know yourself. Know how far you can stretch yourself. Set realistic goals and be very specific.

I hope you achieve your goals this new year and i wish you an amazing year ahead.

xx,

Pinkhy

 

 

I cowashed my hair with rice water

For over 2 months, I’ve been completely obsessing over everything about the Chinese. Their attire, good, culture, everything. I dont think it’s possible to mention China without talking about rice.Rumour has it that rice water is very nourishing for the hair. It’s said to contain a carbohydrate called inositol and this helps in repairing damaged hair. As I’m one to always try new things, especially if it’s organic, I immediately tried this out.

              Ingredients

Uncooked rice

Water

              Preparation

Rinse the rice with little water to remove any impurities. Then soak rice in water and leave for about 30 minutes. Once the time’s up, knead it gently. By now all the vitamins would be fully immersed in the water. Proceed to sieve it. The finished product is gooey-ish and cloudy. You can store it in your refrigerator for a week.

               How to use

Now cowashing is simply washing your hair with conditioner instead of shampoo. So I poured the rice water on my hair and gently massaged my scalp and hair. After that, I rinsed my hair with plain warm water. That’s it.

You can also use this process after shampooing. Sometimes i add lavender essential oil to the mix. You can never go wrong with oil. I think rice water answers all the questions normal conditioner does. It strengthens your hair, leaves it soft and shiny. It also adds a little bit of volume to the hair. The softness effect is usually felt almost immediately.

I really love it and have definitely included it into my haircare routine.

Have you ever washed your hair with rice Water?