Today is the last day of 2015 and all I can say is
I am very thankful for so many reasons but number one thing I am thankful for is the gift of life. As one of my high school friends, Benita David-Akoro tweeted earlier today “To be alive is enough to say this year was good. So many people lost their lives. So many.” I wrote earlier about two people that I met this year and who passed away. Two days ago was a friend’s birthday. I forgot to greet her on her birthday so I went on her page yesterday to do so. Only for me to see that she posted a RIP post to her cousin that day. I clicked on his profile and I saw his last post was 5 days ago, a young man with a bright future, just gone like that plus it was only a few days before the new year. As stressful as this year has been for me, I am still breathing, that itself is a miracle, Thank you, Jesus.
This 2015 was a year of trials, tribulations, and victories. I published my first blog post on January 1st 2015 and I wrote that this year, my personal theme is a meaningful ‘Jesus, I trust in you’. I wish I could say that this year my trust game was 100 percent and I lived every moment with trust in God but unfortunately I did not. Thankfully the love and mercy that is shown to us by God is not dependent on anything and he really saw me through it all. Also, God sent me great people to journey with me most especially my parents, my sisters, S for the past few months and a host of others. I am really blessed by the people that I am surrounded by.
As the year ends today, I have decided to celebrate my blessings and look forward to 2016. This 2015, I started the year with my family, I traveled to Ottawa, Calgary and Arizona…stopped over in Toronto and Seattle. These trips were sponsored by my family friends and my mum, no cost to me. I got orthopedic shoes.My very worst fear came to pass in 2015 but I am still here standing strong. Praise God! Against all odds, I got my new Nigerian passport(I had complications because apparently, only one man in Nigeria can give fingerprint exemption permission…even though my fingers have been this way since the first day that I was born). I started this year with a volunteer job and I am finishing it with a paid job. Wohoo! I had a lot of unprecedented favors especially financially. Really thankful for my parents, W, C and their bosses at SFU. I made a huge career path change decision, I have realized that Engineering at SFU and most especially Computing Science isn’t my thing. Honestly, Biomedical Engineering at SFU is not what I thought it was. It is too much coding and I haven’t seen anything medical about it so I have decided to move to Health science faculty…I have not officially transferred yet though, I need to take some courses next semester and apply for the transfer). Bye bye FAS and Hello FHS in 2016.
Also this year, my friends and I started a Nigerian club on campus. I finally ate amala after 2 years. I drank zobo. I also ate akara this year. Lol, I used to have these things anyhow in Nigeria but living abroad is not easy especially as I am a picky eater. I learnt how to cook (I always proclaimed that I would never need to cook because I would be too rich to need to cook on my own. I would hire cooks. As they say it is condition makes crayfish to bend…as I am not yet rich, I have to cook. LOL. I must admit that cooking is actually fun. I really like to cook beans, chicken gizzard, goat meat and rice. I can’t go wrong with them. When my blender is working, I like to make okro but without blender, grating okro is a pain in the neck. My stew depends on my mood, sometimes it is AMAZING, other times I am like, what is this? but one stew that will forever be perfect is corned beef stew ❤ It is always 100% awesome. If corned beef wasn’t so expensive I would make it all the time. Lol. That’s enough, this is not a Fehintola’s Cooking 101 blogpost.
Back to the 2015 blessings, my sister finished her undergrad exams and project defense this December…although she has to wait until November 2016 for the ceremony, na wa for her school, University of Ibadan. Their convocation ceremony is every November. My parents are alive and well and so are my sisters. I developed a medical condition but I am thankful that I have drugs and insurance to help me with it. Hopefully, it will be gone soon as my doctors have conflicting opinions, some say I have it, the others say they aren’t sure what I have but I am being treated. The down side is that I have to take drugs everyday. Hopefully it will be cured asap. Also my energy/iron levels are better, my doctor said something count was 7 in July and in September it was 20. I am sure it would be better by now, bye bye Anemia. My cousin got married, my friends got married, my friends got engaged, my friends gave birth. So many people starting new families ❤ Also so many people starting new journeys…Tanya joined a convent and A’s brother joined the seminary. Deacon Paul also became Father Paul 🙂
My grades this year were on fire as in really good. I have been able to raise my GPA. Praise the Lord! I participated in passport to leadership, I joined SCCAN, Student Compassionate Community Action Network (a volunteer program run by SFU Health and Counselling) , I am an international community programmer on SFU residence, I went to Gospel Roads. I learnt that people in CCO think that I am not missionary enough(I always like to know where I stand with people so that’s good).I went to No Longer an island conference. For the first time in my life, I allowed myself to be vulnerable publicly by sharing my struggles in school at CFC Youth School Year End party a few months ago. I made new friends, I reconnected with old friends, I turned 21, my job is the best, the list goes on…honestly my blessings are too much.
As Leah Darrow said “Wherever you are in your life, God is still calling you to more. If you’re breathing, God’s not done with you!” Thank you Lord for not being done with me, looking forward to 2016 with a renewed sense of hope 🙂
Peace, love and joy
Fehintola
thisgirlcalledft 