Skip the protocol (My convocation story)

After four years of tirelessly studying at the university, I recently (June 26, 2015) graduated with a degree in Mass Communication.

Yes! Thanks for all the congratulatory messages in advance. I am sincerely grateful.

Prior to the convocation ceremony, my grandmother travelled from Osun to Lagos, just to be physically present at the event, there were also a lot of items to be bought which later began to stress me out. Finding quality materials at malls was really breath-taking, all in the name of a celebration.

Later on, the entire convocation process and protocol started to make me nauseate as I just felt like collecting my certificate and saying goodbyes.

Unfortunately for me it was a week-long event which consisted of a convocation lecture, a hooding ceremony, a long clearance process, the convocation ceremony proper, an alumni investiture and a thanksgiving ceremony ( well .... that's all I can remember.)

Your guess is as good as mine, I was totally exhausted.

After the convocation ceremony, while family and friends present were eating and chatting. I got irritated as I was supposed to smile for hundreds of pictures (not an exaggeration). After taking a few, I couldn't fake it anymore, I was frowning, not because I was not happy but I did not see any need for all these.

My mum and some others yelled saying "Smile now, today is your day"

I am not saying there should be no celebration. There should be a gallant celebration but in cases where the celebration starts to make the celebrant weary. Hmmmn!
(coughs)

All I propose is to stick to the basics and skip the protocol.

Thanks.

WHAT IS LOVE?

When I was about 7 years of age, I considered the word “love” as an overused one, almost everyone I knew said “I love you”; in movies, I constantly heard the phrase “I love you”.

I heard it so much that it began to lose meaning. When anyone said the word “love”, I always nodded in confusion and when the love term was directed at me, I ignorantly said “Thank You”. As I grew older, I definitely became wiser but I couldn’t fully decipher the meaning of the word – “love”

Two months before my 10^th birthday, I gained admission into a secondary school (Grade 7) and I was given a long array of academic books to purchase, books ranging from maths to science, general studies and yes, English!

Among the English books for purchase was the English Dictionary. I was simply overjoyed, I had been trying to convince my parents to get me a dictionary, simply because one word had made me confused. I was scared of asking my parents or my teacher, to tell me the meaning of love, I thought they would think of me differently, they would feel I was corrupt.

Two days later, my mum came in with three nylons, all containing books, I remember running to meet her, almost hitting her and carrying all the nylons from her. 

Mum wondered where I got such strength from, truth be told they were really heavy but I didn’t care all I knew was that I was getting answers to long-standing questions. Ignoring other books, I reached out for the dictionary, reciting the alphabets “JKL”. I opened it to letter “L” and my eyes quickly caught the word “Love”. What could I say, I was utterly disappointed.

The dictionary defined love as a deep feeling of deep affection, you have for someone or something.

Don’t forget at that time I was 9 going on 10. This revelation got me thinking “Who do I love?” At that time the answer was simple – My family

Years have passed and things have changed, people now say “I’m falling in love with you” or “We fell in love”. This made me think, is love something you fall into, like a ditch

Love in my own terms should be likened to that feeling that stems from the family, based on care for others, laughter and the communal feeling of togetherness. Love should grow, it should not be something you fall into and it neither should not be instantaneous.

Once again, I ask what is Love?

MY THOUGHTS ON SCARCITY

With the current fuel scarcity pervading my country (Nigeria), I pondered on a lot of thoughts which was partially triggered by my imagination as well as a movie I once saw.

In the movie, humans were programmed in such a manner that once a person was 25 years of age, such a person had a year to live, and that amount of time was also to be used as a medium of exchange.

A cup of coffee could be 3 minutes while a loaf of bread could be 5. The wealthy could accumulate large amount of money or time as the case may be, while the poor run around with some few minutes or hours looking for some casual work to do to earn them some time. Some sell their properties, because if they clock out, they die.

The fuel situation as well as the movie made me further think, what if air was scarce, and what if water was scarce; what if smiles and laughter costs money, what if a 100 words spoken cost a dollar, would you be mute?

We know the drill, when things are scarce they become expensive, as the rich will be willing to buy at almost any cost making the masses suffer, bus fares are higher than usual, the cost of goods and services are more expensive.

Yesterday, the pepper seller said 6 tomatoes were now 200 naira instead of the normal 70 naira, when I asked her why the tomatoes were so expensive, she said “Don’t you know diesel is expensive”. 

Diesel and Tomatoes, How?

 I laughed uncontrollably but that didn’t change the price of the tomatoes.

Now I strongly assert and join others to say

“For what we freely receive, Heavenly father, make us truly grateful”.