Hi friends,
How are you all doing! Happy Remembrance Day to Canadians, Happy Veterans day to Americans and Happy New Day to everyone. Hope your days were not as unproductive as mine (sleep all day!).I decided to write in order to feel fulfilled. LOL. I would like to give you all an update on my life hence the title, This Past Week in FT’s Life. November 1st on a regular day feels like Christmas to me, if you know me, you know I love saints and certain feast days are very special to me eg June 13th-St Anthony, December 13-St Lucy, etc. Having a day to celebrate all my favorites and generally all saints just makes me so happy. I usually try my best to attend mass each All Saints Day and this year was even a Sunday so I was excited. However, on that day I felt really sick and I was too tired to leave my bed. I eventually attended the 7pm mass. This was actually a blessing in disguise because I ran into a couple of people I hadn’t seen in a while. I didn’t even know D went to St Mary’s! On November 2nd, I was able to make it to All Souls Days mass at SFU Surrey, buy some fruits and attend my class in SFU Burnaby. However, all my grand plans to study fell through. I just slept through my study time and I had a midterm by 8:30am on November 3rd morning. To be honest, when I woke up that Tuesday morning, all I wanted to do was cry and I was especially sad because I really wanted to study but I was too weak to do so. I went to my midterm, hoping that I did not mess it up too bad. To my surprise, I actually knew what I was doing most of the time, praise God! Fr Fernando said probably my guardian angel was looking out for me.
On November 4th, I had a bittersweet day, I woke up to the news of the death of someone that I met this summer and that made me really sad and scared for the most part of the day. (It is my intention to write a post titled “It is well” on this subject). On the other hand, I made two discoveries. That morning, I had a Starbucks date about the job that I did not get which I wrote about last month. The person told me the reason why I was not hired and gave me tips on how to remedy it. The reason was that I couldn’t use particular software and I was told where I can get free tutorials and the library has the software for free so I can learn it on my own. Yay! The second discovery was White/Herbal Tea. Lol, I drank Peach something tea at Starbucks and since then I have been in love with tea. I have been drinking the Lipton Peach & Mango tea and it brings joy to my life. LOL. This is not a paid advertisement! That evening, I also attended a presentation on being a CCO Full-time missionary. It was very interesting and I know one part that stuck with me was one of the qualities that they look for is that you should be “Contagious”. They don’t want people who are only into “Churchy stuff” because that is boring. Despite the fact that I don’t think I will ever apply to CCO, I was wondering if I am someone who is only into churchy stuff. After all, this blog which is where I share my deepest thought does have a lot of church stuff. I even started this post talking about saints, hahaha.
On November 5th, I went to an event at SFU downtown featuring Teju Cole! Check out “Let’s talk about Nigerian books especially Teju Cole because I met him!“ blog post. I met a cool writer there, Kim and we had a lot of fun discussions about a variety of subjects. After the night in my head, I was like “Yay Fehintola, you don’t know only churchy stuff, after all, you can actually have interesting conversations”. Lol,
On November 6th and November 7th, I had evening work shifts. I also did a quiz which was way harder than I expected but it’s all good. Also on November 7th morning, a couple of people who did Gospel Roads(the weeklong service retreat I attended in the summer) and I went back to help out at the Salvation army’s Belkin House. I cut beans most of the time and it was honestly very exhausting. I also met some guy who wasn’t in the best mood. I guess if I were in his shoes, I would feel the same way too so I pray for him wherever he is and hope he is doing well and remembers that he is loved. November 8th, I went to mass and November 9th, I had class. I was supposed to volunteer somewhere but I really needed to study for my upcoming midterm so I stayed in school and reviewed with a friend.
At this post, I would like to back up and mention something that happened last week. On Thursday November 5th, the residence deposit for next semester was due but I had a few complications so I was unable to pay it. The residence office also had a glitch so the deadline was extended until the 6th and my parents and I were like for sure, we will sort it out by then. However, the issue was not resolved by the 7th and I could tell my daddy was getting frustrated because it was the bank giving him issues so I did something that I never imagined I would do. I asked my mum to call Residence on my behalf and explain the situation. This honestly for me was very hard because I have been dealing with residence on my own ever since I came here in 2013, you know as an independent child. Despite my love-hate relationship with Residence, I know they always have my well-being at heart. (I hate when they tried to move me to a farther building in 2013 but the person only did it because she did not want me to move twice.) The residence people said that if I could do a particular thing by Friday, they would extend my deadline to pay for a week but alas I could not fulfill the one thing they asked. I could not imagine going back again after all they had done. So I asked my mum to call and explain things to them and thankfully, they still extended my deadline for a week. Praise God! I also want to mention that my dad was able to help me with the trouble that happened last month that I didn’t know how to remedy and I give God the glory for making it possible for him to help me. Praise God for my parents, the real MVPs and thank you Lord for always always always providing for them.
Another major thing that occurred was on Tuesday, November 10th. I got an email from some people that I had approached for help a few weeks ago although I didn’t know much of what they could do. They said that they were making a special case exemption for me and provided me with assistance that I could not even believe was possible. It was also interesting to me because when we had the No longer an Island conference a couple of weeks ago, I told J to pray for me concerning my situation. That morning around 9, she sent me a message asking if any improvements had occurred and I replied that I was still waiting. One hour later, I got the email saying that they would help me and steps to take. Of course, I told J what had happened and she said that she had been praying nonstop since I told her. That to me was really touching because sometimes I feel doubt and I wonder if things can actually get better, if my prayer would get a ‘yes’ from God, etc. I had been struggling to pray for myself but there was someone who barely knew me praying for me and of course, my parents were praying for me. You all know that I have been struggling with the issue of Trust, trusting in God, trusting in people, trusting in God’s mercy, God’s graces, etc. This recent development has been a great reminder that truly God never ever abandons me. I hope if you are reading this, you would realize the same thing. God loves you, He cares for you and He will never leave you.
On that Tuesday afternoon, I saw Sarah and I gave her an update and she decided to reschedule my appointment because I had a lot to achieve that day so we decided that it was best to reschedule. She made me do breathing exercises to calm me because, at that point, I had only been told that the people helping would help me out. However, I still needed to call my parents for some information before I could proceed. I had to do all that in the next few hours and I also had a midterm that afternoon. (About the exam, I felt that the time was too short and I would have done better with more time but anyways, it’s all done now). I also did not anticipate that the people helping me’s response to be so swift. As soon as I did what they asked of me, they provided me with the assistance immediately. I did not expect it because usually things of that nature usually take time, superiors have to be consulted etc. Praise God for W for really going all out for me. I pray that she also gets people who will support her in her time of need and praise God for K too! That Tuesday evening(Yesterday) I went to a friend’s birthday dinner and by the time I got home, it was really windy and despite wearing my winter jacket, I was shivering. Looking back, that explains why I have a cold right now and writing this post with a cup of Lipton Peach and Mango tea keeping me company.
Another thing that gave me joy yesterday was the fact that the CCO Advent party had been postponed. It was supposed to occur on November 30 but that date is already so busy for me! I end class at 7:20pm and I have to be at training by 7:30pm so I posted this on the event page and declined. Then in the afternoon, Angell and Michael informed me that it had been moved to December 3rd by 5pm. Although I have training by 7:30pm that evening too, I will be able to go for an hour or two so yay. Tomorrow, I have class at 8:30am and the CFC Youth General Assembly on Friday so I am pretty excited for it.
P.S This week, I was reminded about this quote through the events in my life “Cheerfulness is a necessary consequence of our divine filiation, of knowing that our Father God loves us with a love of predilection, that he welcomes us, helps us and forgives us. Remember this and never forget it: even if it should seem at times that everything is collapsing, nothing is collapsing at all, because God doesn’t lose battles.” -St Josemaria (The Forge, 332)
Praise God for an eventful week! Thank You Lord for your love.
#RememberyouareLoved #10daysuntilmy21stbirthday
Peace, Love and Joy,
Fehintola
thisgirlcalledft 