RESPIRATORY DISTRESS

                 RESPIRATORY DISTRESS
         So it’s 3:55AM and for some reason that continues to elude me, I have decided to close my textbooks (with an S) to write this piece. Not because I have the time, nor I can feel the words ringing in my ears, but because I have only about 12 hours to the biggest examination in my life yet, and I want to tell you something about respiratory distress.
                OK, lemme give you the background story, Respiratory Physiology was supposed to be fun (If you’re yet to do it, PLEASE MAKE SURE IT IS FUN TO YOU) One is supposed to learn how oxygen is taken into the body, and carbon(IV)oxide is released, coupled with everything in between, the diseases, complications, control and regulation even the magical stuff I simply cannot explain. But here I am, 12 hours to “kick off time” and I just realized I did not have fun with this stuff.
           Starting from when the lecturer was walking around the class like a Lagos Traffic Warden and he somehow managed to see my steady blue slides, and he said in the coldest-I-am-in-charge-voice he could muster that “You don’t wear slippers to my class, this is a college, not a playground.” Or to the week after, when I jejely decided to go plug my laptop in the college library ( I  have not had light in my apartment for one month, have you?) and I came back to meet a host of people standing at the door, initially, I thought they just decided to have “the corridor experience” ooo, not knowing that my dear lecturer had closed the door, just 5 minutes after he entered….see me see wahala ooo…to now pepper my sores, he decided to take one James Bond attendance, claiming it’s worth 5 marks. Then, to crown it all up. The next week, he asked a question in class, just a question and nothing much happened except that everyone was dazed! And my oga-at-the-top said “physiology you don’t know, anatomy, you don’t know, what do you people know sef?” My people, I tell you, It took every atom of self will in my body to not burst out in laughter at that moment.
              So, what’s my point? SIMPLE – FEAR PUSHES YOU – you just have to channel it the right way. After five weeks of this class, it became quite obvious to all of us that if something did not change drastically, we were all going to fail, terribly. So what did the wise ones among us (yours faithfully included) do, we dropped our egos, dusted our books, and in my case, cleaned our goggles, sat down, and STUDIED.SIMPLE. Now, the exam is just less than half a day away, but I know, we know we will scale through this one, just like the others, simply because we did not sit back, bury our heads in the sand like the Ostrich to hide from our fears, but we stood strong, bent our backs, burnt the candles, because we all fear failure.
         FEAR…it’s perfectly natural, be scared, be worried, but what matters most is how well we can channel this fear, make it positive, build on the positives, work through it…and soon you’d  be singing the victory song.
Like I will, once I leave that exam hall.
Thanks A-Plenty
#SHALLA

CHOICES

11:06PM…..
SOMEWHERE IN EASTERN ILORIN……
15 WEEKS AGO…….
We all make choices every day, from what to have for breakfast to which color of socks to wear, from where to sit in class to who to go out with. Believe it or not these choices define us and affect who we become in more ways than we can imagine….. So, sit back, and let me tell you a story of wrong choices….
I’m sitting at my table ooo, caressing my hot cup of Nestle Milo Tea, pulling the arms of my cardigan tighter…and shaking my head as I remember those decisions…..Really, in less than two hours, I made two top-of-the-chart, somebody-should-punch-me-in-the-face wrong decisions today, BACK TO BACK.
Let’s rewind to approximately 3hrs ago….8pm …I had finished reading my darling Gross Anatomy, and I was just cooling my heels jejely in my friend’s room when I remembered that my football club, my Barcelona, my team had a game that night, of course, I knew I had to see the game….and I decided to (wait, that’s not the even the #1 wrong decision.) I started making my way to item7 (the viewing centre) and I looked up at the sky…saw the lightening, heard the thunder….and I knew without a doubt that Baba God had plans to put on the showers…..so, I began to think to myself, should I just forget my love for football and undying loyalty to Barcelona, tuck my tail between my legs and go home before the rain begins?
But No oooo!....I decided to keep going….knowing fully well that when the rain starts, there’s a 99% probability (abeg, who ignores a statistic this high) that the TV signal would be lost and I won’t even be able to see the game…. Fast-forward to 35mins into the game…the rain started pouring with so much ferocity that you’d think it had been begging to come down since when Awolowo was still at Ife….and the next thing I know, the signal goes! (Surprise!) …..there’s no how I can continue watching….GAME OVER….
The rain continued and continued…dropping melodious beats on the ceiling…I was tired, disappointed with myself and generally frustrated….but Lord, THE HUNGER…it was as if the football match had been transferred to the walls of my GI tract…my stomach was biting. I was stuck in school, no football, no food….Then I realized that I just had to go home… So I called Rose, my editor and dear friend…asking if I could get an umbrella, and the sister said, in her nicest voice, mind you “awwww…I don’t have any oooo.” Want to know what I did next?
I went under the rain! Right under it, I was soaked in milliseconds, I don’t even know if I actually thought this one through, but I had made another decision- to WALK HOME IN THIS HEAVY RAIN…..OK,I just kept my chin up, bouncing in the rain like I’m one kind of boss (but I am, aren’t I?), prepared to walk home if that’s what it takes….15 minutes later, I’m dripping from my head to toe….soaked silly….then the rain decides to stop! ….I was speechless, disappointed, and mostly angry with myself, Fifteen minutes, really! I mean, this rain should have given me the dignity if falling till I got home…but no, it decided to rub my messed up choices in my face and stop in fifteen minutes…I could have waited for those fifteen minutes….and walked home dry, happy and feeling like a good Barca fan! But no, I decided to get all soaked and cold for nothing….TWO CHOICES….
I really don’t know if it’s just me or have you made some top-of-the-chart, somebody-should-punch-you-in-the-face wrong choices too? Go on…drop your comment, share your story and perhaps I can relate.
    Thank You!......You’re the #1 reason I write      #Shalla

What's The Essence?

       “Absence, is not the lack of something…..but the presence of NOTHING” – HayDhee
 
        Yeah, I Know Right!!... it’s been Ten weeks, Six days and 22 hours (for those of us that can actually do math) since my last post on ThoseThoughtz , some of y’all called, texted, pinged….some fellas even asked if I copied my first three posts (LOL).  The last nine weeks have been tough, from annoying lecturers to moonlights games in 9AM classes, from playing Superman in the Lab to friends that become family. I’ve missed you, really, I’ve even missed me…. Okay, let’s move to today;    

         So its 11:32PM, Monday 28th December (just two days after Christmas, mind you) and I’m sitting in this lonely class, trying to get some stuff into my head while hugging my arms and embracing this “African version of winter” called harmattan. Lemme take a moment now and ask myself,  “what’s the essence”, why am I not home with my folks, cracking the bones of yet another unfortunate chicken, while leveling the usual mountain of Pounded Yam that comes with Christmas night. It just begs The Million Dollar Question- ‘WHY DO I DO WHAT I DO?’

          I once saw this really deep DP that read “WORKING HARD FOR SOMETHING WE DON’T CARE ABOUT IS CALLED STRESS, WORKING HARD FOR SOMETHING WE LOVE IS CALLED PASSION.” And I agree, 100%, I mean what else would make someone decide to go to school for Six Years? Or make a random guy choose to run around a football pitch for all of 1hr; 30mins, or better still, what is making me close my books for so long to write this? It’s quite simple really, it’s LOVE, pure, sizzling and undiluted Love.
 
         Have you ever paused to ask yourself, ‘why do you even get off my bed every morning?’ (for me, it’s just to look for food sha), why do you go to work, school or even the market? Lemme guess, Passion, fun, boredom or better still MONEY????? OK, fine, I love writing, if possible I’d even write about writing, but I’m not in school studying ‘writing’, am I? Does that mean I’m not doing what I love best? How do I even get to know what I love best?
Just like in Jude Of All Trades, I’d ask how you stumbled on your life’s passion, are you even on the same lin   e as your deepest desires? Do you even enjoy your lectures? When last did you even smile at work? Or are you one of those people who want to become Movie Stars, but are in Medical School.
                                                                   #shalla

That Saturday Morning

                  Okay, so boarding school was my choice- I dreamt about it, craved it, infact,i prayed for it! And yeah, the Heavens granted my wish, the beginning of  SS1 first term met in boarding school, looking back now….I’D STILL GO BACK TO THAT HOSTEL…well, I just couldn’t display this optimism that Saturday afternoon tho.
                 Let’s take a walk down memory lane… I kept that Golden Morn for months, ignored all the temptations from my guys, fought the nights of total hunger, finding solace in the watery dinning beans, at the same time consoling myself with the euphoria I’d experience when I finally soak my g-morn. But even as I write tonight, I still cannot fathom “why” I chose that Saturday, of all the days in the week, I decided to pick that Saturday Morning; we had been up since 6am, cleaning the dorm for the usual Saturday Morning Inspection (if you went to boarding school you will grab abeg), working assiduously in the toilets- Oh yes, I was a ‘toilet worker’-, scrubbing, sweeping, at the same time stomaching the insults from those lazy corridor sweepers. Oh my, the hunger that morning was just unequivocal; it was like the warriors in my stomach final decided to play ‘hide and seek’. Anyways, I knew in my heart of hearts that it was time, the hour had come and it was an unmistakable sign from up above -a sign to finally ‘launch’ my dearest g-morn (after the inspection)
                 Fast forward to a few hours later, I stylishly ditched my main guys and made my to my locker to ‘codedly’ soak my something… humming happily to myself…suddenly! From nowhere the thunderous voice boomed…”ADEBO!!! .....NO BE G-MORN BE THAT???..... OYA REPORT FOR HERE... NOW NOW!!!”  (I don’t think I can ever forget the sound of Senior Jude’s voice)…and there and then, I knew the game was over…I still remember how my heart was in my mouth while walking through the  literal ‘valley of the shadow of death’ –from Room7 to Room2 ( Senior Jude’s Corner), holding ‘my precious’ sheepishly. So, Jude took his bowl oo… and poured almost 75% of the something!, kai! If looks could kill sha! The guy no even send me at all… Like the unseen forces dealing with me were determined to serve me a total knockout-another senior saw the exchange and decided that Golden Morn would be his lunch!.. that one too poured like 22% of the remaining 3%- do the math abeg. Naso e take happen oo… in less than five minutes, my heart was broken, expectations shattered, all that was left would not even feed my neighbor’s 6 month old baby- they hadn’t even rang the dinning bell before I was on the queue for the rocklike yam and watery stew they serve on Saturday Morning!
           It's  a boarding school thingy, so  go ahead, crack some ribs and tell a story of how you didn’t have it easy in the hostel…..or were you one of those chilled out folks who can never really understand how it feels to be a “boarder”?
   

            PS; Senior Jude is now an Engineer and I can bet My Words he cannot remember That Saturday  Morning  (I really hope he gets to read this tho)  
                       
                             See y’all next week …. #shalla

Fine-daughter-of-a-black-president

               So I woke up that morning oo,wondering where the night went as usual,made my traditional cup of coffee,no sorry,Lipton,picked my phone...searching for new topics to air my view on....well,the gods of gossip were in a good mood that morning...the first headline that graced my four eyes was the fact that one fine-daughter-of-a-black-president is now engaged to one of the men that fought alongside her father in World War II, honestly, i don't even know how that steaming cup of tea managed to miss my mouth (and don't you dare ask where it went to).

            Back to d matter,this lady is someborry that influenced many votes,how?....she just posted a couple of perfect selfies!...now that Big Daddy is in Abuja, she's slying us totally. In fact, i know a couple of hot blodded brothers who would call for a by-election (we voted under the influence of beauty abeg). Now, i'm here thinking of the one thing that made our fine-daughter-of-a-black-president (i no mention any name oooo) attracted to her ancestor when confirm,eligible bachelors like me and Brother Paul next door are just one phone call away?...abi guys don finish for area ni???..... Or was she never attracted to him, is it a question of force,or just a product of culture? Okay, what’s the problem with this baba sef, wetin im wan do again??.....i'm still asking myself this questions ooo, my people.

           Actually,i do not have anything against the culture sef,if you're 72 and you wish to get married to your 18 year old crush,go ahead....i'd still come and eat jollof rice at the reception jejely. All i'm doing is questioning the logic of it; not on the male's side but on the female's....how on earth would u want to enter a marriage where your step-daughters are in your mother's age bracket??....i wonder ooo.....and for the Baba's....well...if una finish all the fresh, young and fine babes before we reach there.....DIARIZGOD OOOO.....

     I am done talking abeg,before them talk say na my mouth them hear say make person no marry person...when my orente still dey use me play hide-and-seek....but lets take a moment and do the math of it... If our Grandfathers marry our classmates....who would we marry?......FIND X

                    SEE Y'ALL NEXT TIME....YOU  MAKE  LIFE WORTH WRITING FOR.... #shalla

"JUDE" OF ALL TRADES

                "JUDE" OF ALL TRADES
     
    Until i turned 16, i always thought the "fairy" that "delivered" future ambitions to kids somehow forgot me (peharps as punishment for my constant bad manners). It was never definite; either this,or that...and in some cases,a combination sef.
    When I was 8, my Aunt had this microphone - the standard silver and black mic with an unending trail of wire-,that mic inspired me; a pure,sizzling and undiluted inspiration to....CLIMB ON THE CENTRE TABLE AND PREACH TO THE BANANA TREES... well,that was the birth of my first profession; to be a Pastor. Looking back now, i reckon i should have given more credence to the fact that i am a good orator(which we would find out in subsequent posts). So,the boy wanted to be a pastor...#Trade1
      The years flew by, or were they even months?...but i suddenly realized that my 'congregation' was not growing- perhaps i was not a good enough pastor,in fact, it was reducing!-My Dad actually cut down some of the Banana trees-. Well,one way or another...i knew i had to make a drastic change; an upgrade was required
      GOD BLESS OUR PILOTS....from the white suits to the perfect caps,and oh,i cannot but mention the cute air hostesses! LOL... i entered the pilot phase #Trade2... next came the naval officer dream #Trade3 and medical doctor came up along the line... (I just hope i won't ditch that along the line for "greener pastures"....  One way another 'sha',i found a perfect answer to the "What Do You Want To Be In Future?" question. Please post your own story of how you discovered..."What You Want To Be In Future"...See you next week😀👋✌