Better Days Are Coming; Ma wo be.
Dear reader,
How are you? How is your health? I hope you’re taking good care of yourself and your eleda. I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m in such high spirits, today. Allow me. It’s been a while.
I couldn’t write a letter last week because the clouds over my head were too heavy and I remember telling my friend that I didn’t want my letters to have that kind of content, which brings me to musing for today. In my first ever letter, I talked about how I wanted to share my experiences navigating through life and if life is showing me pepper or kicking my ass, why shouldn’t I talk about it? Why should I hush hush? But the clouds have cleared now, so sorry, maybe you’ll hear the gist another day. Don’t worry, it’s life so one or two things go still sup.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the hard days, about those chapters that make you cry. It’s inevitable and it’s just one of the many ways life sucks. What’s, even more, is that the tough days and good days aren’t properly rationed. There’s no certainty. No formula for calculation. You just have to wake up every day and hope for the best. You can be battling a 10:1 tough day to good day ratio, while someone else is doing 1:10. This life thing has never been balanced.
It’s been such a difficult time to be a Nigerian lately and many of my friends reply my how are yous? with: omooo, see ehnnnn and my personal favourite, I just dey.
I want to say prepare for the bad days (they will come) but that’s fluff advice. How can anyone actually prepare? What I would say instead, is that you should go through the motions; dwell in them, cry, scream, curse, ask the what-ifs and the why mes if you may.
But remember: Better days are coming, ma wo be.
So when the clouds eventually clear and give room for joy, let it in. On days when you find genuine reasons to laugh, seize it. On days when you feel the urge to dance, you better do that leg work with all your energy. On days when you feel light and are surrounded by love, dwell in it, hold on to those moments. Photograph them if you may.
No one is making it out of this place alive. So we might as well try to enjoy the (arduous) journey.
A random fun fact that made me smile earlier in the week:
Away from my musings, I read pretty interesting stuff this week, so let’s unpack them:
Vitalik Buterin, the man behind Ethereum, is worried about crypto’s future and spoke to TIMES about it. I think the best part about reading this was seeing that my concerns about crypto are similar to his and he clearly knows more about that subject matter than almost anyone. I guess it’s time to add crypto-expert to my bio.
‘Do not be afraid to disappear, from it, from us, for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence.’ Michaela Coel. I think everyone should read this and hold her words as a reminder.
‘In this new world, everything essentially becomes A Thing.’ - Jason Parham. This article reminded me of when I woke up to see (yt) influencers trying out ‘fufu’ on Tiktok for attention.
This article is a testament to Nigeria’s lawlessness and how big corporations would continue to leverage on it to exploit Nigerians desperate to earn a living in an ever-dwindling economy.
Book Review: I’ve mentioned before that Eloghosa Osunde is one of my favourite writers ever. Her debut book, Vagabonds, was released during the week. Here’s an NYT review of the book. Unfortunately, if you’re in Nigeria, you’ll have to wait till April like me. Sorry. Join the cue.
Fiction: Gold by Eloghosa Osunde
On (Not) Wasting My Time With A Younger Man. Is love less authentic, less worthy of admiration if it doesn’t end in forever? I don’t think so and neither does Rosemary Howe Camozzi.
Something to warm your heart. This piece made me go, ‘I’m not crying, you are.’
What this newsletter is listening to:
Alessia Cara and Mr Eazi
Also plugging in a K drama recommendation for the real ones: A Business Proposal (you can thank me later).
I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I did. I also want this to be, beyond a newsletter, a community of sorts. So feel free to write back, tell me your thoughts on some of the stories I shared, and even your favourite story from the week!
Away from this newsletter, what’s the best story you read this week? Share it with me, and who knows? It might feature in my next letter.
Thank you for reading. Until next week.
With love,
Titi.