Hey, I just made it to twenty-three.
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way” — Martin Luther King Jr.
2020 saw the start of me writing on Medium, which means today is my 3 years anniversary of documenting my experiences. It was something that started unexpectedly and thanks to your kind words, I have continued to share my experiences with you. I sort of now have a ritual of writing on every birthday except for 2021, which I really can’t remember why I didn’t. The good thing about all this is that when I die, anybody can read this blog and have a glimpse of the kind of person I was.
Another sort of ritual I have is to play Nasty C’s Strings and Blings repeatedly on my birthday eve. The music has a particular line I have been in love with, “Love only visits on your birthday night.” I can say I relate to the words he said and I understand to an extent. Birthdays are actually special days and whether I like it or not, it’s a day I feel best about myself. I’m sure you have seen countless birthday posts made by people. So my question is, how many times have you seen it pointing out that a celebrant is a bad person? None most likely right?
Birthdays are the perfect whitewashing events and the irony is, we don’t even know that’s what we are doing. Before you take me too seriously, I am not saying it’s a bad thing, after all, there are like 364 more days to drag the individual. I would actually like to add a twist to this year, I want you all to help me become a better human. So as you send your birthday wishes, send also things about me you dislike, find odd etc. I will be waiting for your messages. Unlike Nasty C, love doesn’t only come on my birthday night, I feel it on other days through random events. It is something I do not take for granted and I am grateful for it.
I turn 23 today and one of my joys is I can still engage in 30+ men slander and go free. Do you know why? A sizable number of women in my age group I know have mentioned wanting to be with a 30+ man. In the end, a majority will still come back to complain about the shege they saw in the relationship. The game is rigged against young, struggling folks like me and I would do anything in my power to even the odds.
To add a sprinkle of “deepness” to this article, I googled the symbolism of the number 23 and surprisingly it represents new beginnings, revolution, and transformation. I am at this point in my life where I feel this is a new beginning for me. I am officially done with my university (the graduation list came out this week) and I am now testing new tides. I used to balance school and work but now school is out of the way and I want to explore the world. There is so much out there in this world and I want to see it all for myself.
In my last article, I mentioned the passport issue and finally, after August I started this journey I have my passport in my hand. However, another problem has risen up to stop me from attending Zuzalu, getting a visa. The Serbian embassy in Nigeria said they stopped accepting visa applications in May last year due to “technical issues.” Funny how my most heard problem is now “technical issues.” Tried to apply through the embassy in Ethiopia and Kenya but they mentioned it wasn’t possible. Tried to get a Schengen visa through France but the earliest appointment date was May 16th, which didn’t work well for me. So I am left with two options if possible, to send my passport to Montenegro directly or have the Serbian embassy in South Africa attend to my case.
I was supposed to be dancing with someone’s daughter by the time this article goes live but thanks to Ckay, that is only an imagination. He was supposed to have a concert in UNN and till now we haven’t heard anything from him or the team. I do hope everyone gets refunded because that ticket money would have reached to cook Easter X Birthday rice with chicken. It is quite irresponsible of an artist and his team to behave in the manner they did. This is largely why I don’t rate most Nigerian artists because they don’t rate their Nigerian fans.
Lastly, I mentioned grinding harder and putting together a portfolio website. Well, I got it ready by the weekend of the article, thanks to Notion. So if you want to look at it, check it out at www.dan-el.xyz. I am open to gigs and job offers (depending), so feel free to always reach out.
