Bahala na is Tagalog for Come what may

In 2007 or 2008 I can't remember which year or what day it was. But I do remember that it was a cold evening. She like the other children of diplomats who had to been brought to our school in the middle of the term from some other country fascinated the rest of us.

I would watch them surreptiously at the dinning hall. While the rest of us ate the yam and egg sauce that made everyone drowsy during the morning lectures. They were the only exception to that attrocious meal. Watching them delicate nibble at their sausages with the right piece of cutlery and how they spoke of their experience in a far away place that I knew of only because my fantasies were what my dreams were made of.

The day she shared with the rest of us her gift for telling the future. I was one out the many curious people who lay out our palms for her to read. I would never forget that cold night and I would never forget what she said.

She said "You will have a rough start with life at first and then someone would come who would make life beautiful". She also said as she traced the lines on my palm "Your love life would be rough, smooth and rough".

I believed her and I claimed those words as truth. Because I belived in fairy tales, I wanted to be Cinderella who got saved.

She failed and she had to resit that class and I really do wonder why she never saw that coming with all the fortune telling that she did for others. That would have been the best way to know that she was a sham but I was much to seduced by the awe of meeting the prince charming promised to me. The one who was going to be my saviour.

After getting my heart broken and after the long nights and tear stained pilours. I know now more than ever that there will be no dashing prince whose life mission is to save me.

Now I know that I must save my self. I must be strong for myself, I must be the woman I was born to be without out any man doing the heavy lifting. Now I know, that I am my own herione.

Have I ruled out on love inspite of all i've been through? certainly not! But I am not going to struggle to find it any longer like is the Holy Grail. I am going love my self, take care of myself because Bahana la I deserve to be happy.

And happy I will be.

Rain, so they don't see my tears

They say that everything happens for a reason. But there are no reasons for certain predicaments we find ourselves, sometimes life just deals us cards we didn't ask for.

Yesterday I cried, I cried like I hadn't cried in years. I cried like my heart would break, I cried like I needed redemption. I cried because the pain had reached its boiling point and had combusted like an angry volcanoe.

Crying is something I rarely do. But when you are put down and your legitimate lifestyle choices are put down by someone who claims to love you. Someone who knows how vulnerable you are because you just had a bad break up.

Then I cried again because he almost raped me. His excuse was "You are my girlfriend and I want to make love to you". When begging and bargaining did not seem to be working, biting his tongue severely seemed to do the trick.

I came home, I showered and lay on my bed. Told no one because there is no one to tell. I thought long and hard, I tossed and turned on my bed and when I slept I had nightmares.

I want to ask why this is happening to me. May be I deserved it, all I wanted was someone that would help me find closure, someone that would prove to me that it pays to love for the right reasons because love is something I also deserve.

Uneven Year, Uneven Experiences

This is my happy place. Writing in my journal doesn't quite cut it this days. Writing here, in this space feels like therapy for me. It always has.

In 2016, I was having a ball, I was in a great relationship and everything seemed well. It was the best year of my life. I thought finally! I had met the man who valued me and saw my true worth.

I stuck with him, stuck with his broke ass, jobless self. For all intents and purposes I felt like a wife, I played the real to perfection because I felt he deserved it.

In retrospection, I have learnt that you do not really know a person. I have learnt that human behaviour can not predicted and I have learnt that you can not really know a person.

I have refused to be bitter because that would not be in my favour. Heart broken doesnt explain the way I feel. cheated is more like it.

There are some days it gets to me, the anger, the betrayal, and I feel like I have lost something I would never get again.

I have lost my innocence, my starry eyed believe that people are as good as they say they are. Now I look at everyone with suspicion, now I think everyone has a hidden agenda.

I'm a bit listless this days. There is the occasional anxiety, where I ask my self questions I have no answer to. Questions like will I ever fall in love again? Did someone really sabotage me because I shared my happiness with the rest of the world? Everyone is getting married and being in love, why did mine have to go south even after all the work I put into this relationship?

I try to put all my pent up emotions in work but this days that also doesnt cut it. I scroll through happy pictures of couples gaily dressed and looking so in love on Prewedding Naija or Bellanaija. And for a mini second I ask fate, why can't that be me?

This days I have been staying away from my unit in church because I really feel like I have nothing to give. I feel like I failed my self, I feel like such a hypocrite.

I feel empty this days, I feel like there is a hole, a void, a space that needs feeling. I feel like I lost something. I know the answer to this, I know the answer lies with drawing back to God and being committed to him. Having a deep and personal relationship with him.

There is John Paul but I won't be talking about him today but I  know that I am thankful that he is here. He made things easier to deal with.

Right now my life is full of a lot of uncertainties, career,love, passions all seem to be filled with question marks.

I deserve to be happy, I want to be happy.

I was sexually harassed by the blind defenseless guy at work

I never thought a day would come were I would be talking about sexual harassment at work but I guess the day did happen. His name is Paul, a blind man who is quite adept at getting things done his disability regardless.

When I resumed work he was uber friendly, I saw his friendship as the guy at work trying to flirt with the new girl. I even gave him my number, then he would call at weird hours. I remember the day he called me and told me that he had come by my house and how I shocked I was because thr blind guy from work was the last person I expected to trail me to my house.

I noticed that he liked to hold my hands, more like rove on them all the way to my lower arms, he had this really firm grip. I always felt really uncomfortable, then he would make all this comments that were always headed towards a clandestine relationship.

Then one day, I was going into his office and he was walking out and then he grapped me, it was so fast and so sudden but I managed to get myself out of his tight grip. From that day on I started to stay as far way from him as possible.

Today the topic of flirty guys at work came up, and he tried to play the innocent card. I said it wasn't true and then I told everyone what had transpired between us that frightful day he grabed me.

He started to say that I was making false accusations, he got so riled up that I almost started to believe I was the one telling a lie. Everyone took his side because he is the poor blind guy.

You know what irks me the most about this? the fact that I knew it would be this way, the fact that I should have never said a word about this. Ever!

Am I the only one who doesn't have 2017 figured out?

In 2016, I literally entered the new year moon walking. I was so sure of what I wanted to achieve that year. When I prayed, I prayed with a purpose. This year however I feel like I still haven't woken up to the reality that it is a different year.

Everywhere I look, I see people getting things done at a faster pace, I see people coming up with new projects and goals for the new year and all I want to do is sit on the couch and eat pop corn.

Whats even more frustrating is that my Bosses at work think i'm still lil ol' me who was so fired up about taking on assignments and new projects. This year I could care less about dead lines or writing wining stories.

I do have goals and expectations for this year I'm just not as fired up about them as I ought to be. I hope this is a thing, a thing that wears off more like a bug or may be a flu kinda like flu of passivity.

Talking about passivity I havent had a bath all day...yes I know, yuck! double yuck!

MMM Returns, Mavros in Kogi celebrate

Following the recent come back of controversial Ponzi scheme, Mavrodi Mondial Movement (MMM) over a hundred thousand persons in Kogi state who invested in the scheme were seen jubilating across various relaxation centres in the state.

Mr. Isiah Sunday, a retired policeman told Kogi Reports that he had been through a lot of anxiety in the last few weeks following the freezing of the site. "I invested about N50,000 into MMM and I fainted when I read on news sites that the site had crashed, I have been praying and fasting for many days, God has answered my prayers MMM is back" he said.

Another Mavro, Omoniyi Muyiwa who is a 200 level student of Kogi State University, Anyingba said  that he had invested his pocket money and funds he borrowed from friends into the scheme, all which amounted to N100,000. "My plan was to pay back my friends after I got my 30% interest and then use the remaing money to upgrade my room on campus, I have learnt my lesson with MMM, once I get my money back from MMM, I will never partake in any Ponzi scheme again".

Mr. Uchenna Okoye a businessman was seen celebrating with friends and well wishers at a popular drinking spot in the states capital, Lokoja. He revealed that he had invested N1,500,000 in the scheme. "I had almost become hypertensive when I had MMM crashed with my money, MMM na you biko! Jesus I thank you! he was heard to be saying.

However there are some pundits who still believe that that the scheme is time bomb living on borrowed time. One of those persons is Mrs Abigail Adukwu who believes that any business that is based on a Ponzi pyramid is doomed to fail.

90 Million women in Nigeria and none has a can of pepper spray

Of recent in Kogi State, there have been gruesome stories of girls getting kidnapped and raped. My mum came back from curch this evening and she tells me yet another frightening story of some girl who also almost got kidnapped fortunately she was able to escape from her attacker by throwing sand in his face.

The truth is, the recent developments with kdinapping in the state scare me a lot more than I let on. I am a Journalist for Petes sake and everyday I am taking bikes to cover assignments in places that I did not know existed.

So I started to think of a way to protect myself and then I remembered pepper spray, with all the stories of rape, domestic violence and kidnapping in the country pepper sprays should be one of the most basic commodities in Nigeria.

I looked up how to make your own pepper spray on wikihow and I realised that it was something I could make from the comfort of my kitchen. And then the entrepreneur in me asked, what if you made this commercial? what if you sold this to other young women in Kogi state who are desperately in need of a self defense mechanism.

Like Mo Abudu said having a great idea is one thing but it all boils down to execution. For now i'll start by making me by own personal brand of pepper spray and I hope it gives me some sense of security.