Reflections and Weekend gist

I'm awake at 3.00am in the morning and I can't go to sleep. What should I do? Blog of course! By nature, I'm a real night-owl. I've been forced to adapt to society that dictates I should be awake during the day, and asleep at night. Blah. This suits me better. Back in senior secondary school days, night time was the best time to stay awake. I used to go to sleep at 10pm and then wake up at 1am. Sometimes it was fun when everyone is awake at night and we could get up to all kinds of mischief. But most times I enjoyed the tranquility of having a quiet night to myself. I liked having my friends around me and stuff, but I also loved spending time alone, still do. I could write in my diary without being disturbed. I could read a novel I had been too busy to read during the day. I could just chill and reflect my life and the things that were important to me at the time. At some point I used to write lots of my thoughts down and tear them up afterwards. One time I wrote pages and pages of stuff and some of my friends found it. They thought I was weird, (like who writes about things that they are going through), and they were teasing me. I was mortified at the time and I guess they didn't understand me. Looking back now I think it was a form of release for me, and that was the way I dealt with all those confusing teenage years. I still have three of my personal diaries from 1998 to 2000. I looked at them last month and smiled to myself. It was interesting to see how I saw the world as a teenager.

In primary school I used to make up stories and write them down. Once I remember showing my dad a story I had written, complete with little cartoons I had drawn to go with the story. He had been pleased to see them and I remember him asking me if I wanted to keep writing, and I had said yes. But one day I was writing some stories in class and some kids saw my notebook, read what I had written and ridiculed it. That was it really, I lost interest in writing then, because my friends thought I was crazy. Looking back now, I realise that I have always been a writer. It is something that I have been born with. I buried it a long time ago because it wasn't "cool" enough and my friends thought I was weird. Later on, I knew I was good with subjects like English and Literature but never took it seriously enough to consider it as a career back in school and uni days. I'm glad I started blogging because I've realised that the writer within me is still there. I need to rediscover my talents and do something with it, whether it is cool or not. That's the way I can really express myself. So I'm taking the plunge soon. Here's to discovering where my gifts will take me.

On to other gist. I had a good weekend. On Saturday, I attended the Nigerian Carnival with my friends. There were four of us: two guys, me and my other girl friend. I was supposed to meet up with Mimi there as well, but she came down with a cold and couldn't make it, bless her. I still had a great time though. My friends and I had no expectations when we were going there. We had decided that we would turn up and see, and if it was boring, we would find another way to spend our afternoon. So it was nice to see that it was rocking when we got there and we stayed till the evening. It was more like a "party in the park" than a carnival but it was still fun. The weather was good so that helped too. There was a big stage and there were lots of different performances from singers, dancers, MCs and other artistes. There was a fashion show as well, which was really good. The turn-out was good considering that I had only heard about it by chance through a friend, and lots of people wore green and white stuff. BEN TV had a tv crew there filming the whole event. My friends and I tried to avoid that camera as much as possible, lol. Around the park there were lots of food and suya stands there, as well as snacks so there was a good variety of Nigerian food on offer. The dj was good, so there was a good flow of music to keep the party vibes going all day - the usual 2Face, D'banj and other Nigerian grooves. I met some more friends there and was introduced to some nice cool people so I had a great time. My friends and I took part in a draw and we won t-shirts! All in all we had a great time so kudos to the organisers. My feet ache now cos I was standing and dancing all day! Didn't attend on Sunday, but some of my friends did and from what they told me, Sunday was cool too, and there was an after-party at a club. I think it's a nice idea and I'll probably attend it again if they decide to do it next year.
Hubby and I taught sunday school today and the topic was about friendships. It was just amusing to hear the what the adorable 6 - 8 year olds were saying about their friends. After church we visited a family and spend the afternoon chilling with them. So that's how my weekend went. Gosh it's almost 4.00am now, so I guess I need to log off now and go and prepare for another week. Have a good one!