So this weekend i am moving out of my old apartment. It had been my sanctuary, home and cocoon for 18 months and although i won't miss it much but it was a part of me and I learnt most of my valuable life lessons in that segmented shoe-box I called my HOME for a while.
So lets raise a glass to my old, musty. leaky roofed, bad drainage, bathroom-less shoe-box format of my old apartment. My dearest imperfect dingy apartment...
....You thought me how to be humble, respect my beginnings and appreciate the little things that I had. you showed me that with less than nothing i could take on the world and conquer it...
....You helped me build character in the 45 degree heat of Abuja post harmattan season and learn that confidence did not come from my dad's bank account, my academic qualifications, by getting a boo or my boo's ride (which i still don't have by the way),my professional qualification, my residential area, my connections, the company I kept or my fashion sense but rather it came by accepting myself for who I was and what I intended to make out of this life...
.... During the cold, dreary rainy season of Abuja, the musty smell from my badly plastered wall that lets moisture seep through from puddles outside thought me that there worse things in life than living in a village in the country's capital and spending a fortune on designer perfumes to drown out the musty irritating smell of ghetto living....
... And the toilet?!... well lets a gazillion glasses to that part of my apartment that spans the space of a matchbox and still doubles as the bathroom! You would have to be drunk to consciously spin around in that space to scrub your back! best case scenario? leave the back scrub till you go visiting friends and family in town where you can take your bath and scrub your back without colliding with the unpolished concrete of the wall...
... The Kitchen! that awesome place that kept me fed and smiling ; well it was the hallway that doubled as the corridor, doubled as the pantry, which doubled as the kitchen! I had a wash basin installed to act as the dish sink and got an old reading table with drawers to act as the work table as that was all that could fit...
Finally the ceiling!!! Ah! that place that housed my co-tenants who never paid rent and only came out at night! Half the time it looked like it was going to cave in when my rodent house mates scurried within it like male elephants in heat....
A huge wonderful toast to my old segmented shoe-box of an apartment that thought me to learn from my mistakes and bad decisions, thought me to chose my friend wisely and to FORGIVE myself for the stupid things and stupid people I let into my heart and life.
I won't miss the apartment so much but i will cherish and appreciate the opportunity of learning the life lessons I learnt because now i know what i want out of life and how to go about it. Settling for less is out of it now and getting or giving all or nothing is the way forward!
Good bye rodent infested shoe-box size apartment, good bye Magajupe village!
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