2018 IN REVIEW

2018 in review

2018 was pretty emotionally draining for me. Also it's has been an interesting year. I started a brand new job this year, lived on my own for the greatest part of the year, met so many of my set goals. 

So this is me talking about my year in details. Here I go.

GOALS

1. Professional goals

So I started a new job in January this year after quitting my job last year!! (I just said that for effect, lol). Actually, I was retained in the office I did my NYSC but I rejected it, even tho at that time, I had no job offer from anywhere. I just couldn't stay in my ppa. Almost everyone I knew advised me to stay there because of the situation of things in the country but I really felt the conviction to leave and so I did just that.

But due to the fact that I serve a living God who does all things in the best way, I went for an interview December 2017 and I eventually got the job. The pay is quite okay. Interestingly my present job is purely engineering and it affords me the opportunity to progress in my career, which is great. 

So professionally, I've progressed, I've learnt quite a lot, experienced real life scenarios and so much more.

Work has been so amazing. I have awesome colleagues who have made learning really easy. I've also picked a lot of managerial skills and I know the future is bright gaaaan.

2. Family

My family has to be the most important set of people to me. I love them a whole lot and we're pretty close.

So this year, since I moved to a new city (more or less), I had to live with my father for most of the time.
 Growing up, we could say my dad was not not always around (due to the nature of his job) as compared to my mum who had a more flexible job, so it could be said that we the children were generally closer to our mum than our dad, but living with him this year has made me to understand him more and know him better and I can confidently say I have the best dad ever. He is legit my friend, he actually listens and he's soooo cool.

As for my mum, we've been cool tey tey, but our arguments ehn, they are not from here, very epic something!! 😂😂

My elder brother and younger sister have been away from the country for a while now and even tho I'm used to it by now, I still miss them. Our communication was really great this year, We always stayed in touch.

As for my little brother, since we are more or less the only siblings in the country, I could say we grew closer and our fights became worse 😂😂 but we survived.

3. Friends 

From my previous posts, you would tell that I have quite a close circle and I'm not that sociable. But generally, most of the friends I made over the years, I've kept them. My classical choir friends from school who form the majority of my friends are still there, strong as ever. I made only one friend from my service year (please don't judge me 😂) and she's still here. This year I can actually say I got close to some people but I won't necessarily call them friends yet, lol, also at my work, I got quite close to my colleague Kelechi, she's awesome by the way. 

At this point lemme give a special shout out to Nifemi, Pelumi, Isichei, Lois, Bisola, Crystal, Firdausi, Emmanuel DEO, Eromosele, Chuks, Etse, Irene ( at this point I'm actually cracking my head and literally thinking about my friends. That says a lot yeah? Looool ) Nnamdi, Grace, Joshua, Tolu, Aramide  (note: I've spent more than 30 mins at this point so I think I'll just give up).

Also, I made a conscious decision this year to stop been a "dumping ground" for my friends. So what this simply means is that most of my friends talk to me about their troubles and concern and I'm always there for them but because of the type of person I am, I find it hard to share things especially my problems. So this year I ensured I reached out more. Many times I would just message 1 or 2 people and I'll just say "I want to rant" and I'll keep talking and talking and they'll keep listening. (Special shout out to Pelumi, Isichei, Crystal, Etse, Firdausi, these people ehn, they heard all my boy problems, and they were quite a lot this year 😂😂).

4. Service 

Please I'm not referring to the NYSC service here o 😂😂😂. I'm simply referring to being useful wherever you find yourself in. 

This year I gave a lot in service most especially in God's vineyard. I gave my entirety and I was glad. It was stressful, yeah, but it was also fulfilling. At a point, I came to accept the fact that my weekends were even more stressful than the weekdays. There were so many down times, times that I even cried, moments where I almost gave up but God kept me going. I also got to know God more in the process of all these and I became even a better person. Right now, I'm soooo eager to do more and I'll do more!!! 

5. Giving 

So, I'm a person who is money conscious, I grew up knowing how to save. Every year, I've always had a kolo where I'll drop money occasionally. At a point, it became a competition between my siblings and I on who would save the most for a specific period. So even when I grew up I continued with it and became what I'll call an Aggressive saver, lol.
I knew a lot about budgeting, spending wisely, etc, even tho I never did financial training. 

I also grew up with parents that could spend wisely and also gave generously. Initially I also loved and enjoyed giving but after I went to the university, things changed drastically (kindly refer to an old post titled right giving). But basically I stopped giving. It was really bad up to the extent that if anybody wanted to borrow N100 form me, I'll most likely not give the person N100 rather I'll give the person N1000 note. 
Now, the idea behind this is that if I give you N100, and you don't repay me immediately, It'll really not make sense to start chasing the person for N100 but if I'm chasing you for N1000 it sounds more reasonable.

Enough of the long story.

So basically, I made a conscious effort to change this narrative about me, so I got to work. My dear readers, this year ehn, I gaveeeeeeeee and baba lord helped me to enjoy it. He changed my story. Interesting fact is, I never ever went dry or broke and this year was a year I received lots and lots of gift, I mean somebody dashed me N20,000 just like that.

6. Finances

As I said earlier, I know a bit about money, savings and investments and this year I made sure I had all of the 3 things. At the end of the year I can say I have savings, investments and spending money. 

I plan on improving upon my investment and being more deliberate concerning my savings culture.

7. Health

Thanks be to God, this year I never really fell ill, took malaria drugs once or twice. Didn't really exercise much and coupled with the nature of my job, I hardly moved. Due to the above reasons, I added weight 🙈🙈. But really, compared to 2017, the major reason I gained weight was because of peace of mind 😀😀.

8. Love life...

*Deep sigh 😩😩😩😩😩 I think I should just refer you to my previous post on how I got my heart broken this year 😭😭😭.

Well, in addition to the heartbreak, I got asked out/ proposed to by like 4 guys at different times of the year, went on a lot of dates cos everybody said I should put myself out. Despite all that, I'm ending the year as a single Pringle 😂😂😂, but as I said in an earlier post, I'm still really hopeful about love and I'm looking forward to it. So basically my love life in 2018 can be summarized as "me falling for guys that didn't necessarily feel the same way and guys falling for me when I obviously didn't feel same for them" confusing yeah.. I know... but that's my life 😩😩

9. Favorite moments in this year (testimonies) 

Getting a job in Abuja- 10th January 

Got saved from a dog attack- January

Fikayos kidnapped mum was found- 25th January 

Became youth exco in church- 1st June

Passed my Delf A2 and B2- 5th July 

Took lead in choir ministration- 26th August 

Preached in RCCF- 16th September 

My first investment: thrive agric- 19th October 

Second investment: thrive agric- 2nd November 

Family Sunday- 18th November 

Did presentation at work that enabled me to prove myself- 4th December 2018

Transfer to kaduna was approved- 8th December 2018

Workers in training graduation 

Every time I finished a book 

Daddy's contract got extended- December

IHS camp- 27-30th December