2023 and then some.
2023 was the best of times and the worst of times. It was a year that started quite slowly and with little drama then cascaded into a series of fortunate and sometimes unfortunate events.
I hit many milestones as a young adult in 2023 and for that, I am so glad. Let’s break the year into four quarters and highlight notable events, achievements, and some shockers. Here we go:
Q1
The first quarter of the year started like a Monday morning, still hungover from the December celebrations and unsure of what the year would bring. I had one goal in mind and it was to try and live my life as unapologetically as possible, make more friends, and do things that would calm my mind. I visited loads of galleries around Lagos and it kind of became my thing. I started paying more attention to art and oh I did loads of concerts and shows in between. Life can be boring, it’s up to us to fill it up with color.
Cash became very scarce at one point and people were buying money with more money. POS attendants started having escorts and bankers were soft targets for the ill-directed wrath of Nigerians.
Q1 ended with some sort of sadness, however. The general elections ended with a disappointing result for a number of us. I remember the weeks leading up to the election and how much effort my friends and I put into canvassing for our preferred candidate and how it was for nothing. The presidential election is one I will never forget. I remember how we stood and voted then waited for our votes to be counted and uploaded. I remember running home to bring wifi routers because the network was bad and the results refused to upload.
We would end up following the election officials to their collation center to “help” upload the results. Somehow, the results for the Senate and House of Representatives were uploaded without a hitch but the results for the Presidential election refused to upload.
Classic Nigeria.
We managed to upload offline hoping that it would count for something.
lol.
In classic Nigeria fashion, the results were announced in the dead of the night and now we are where we are.
Something died in a lot of us that night.
The gubernatorial elections were much worse. My friends and I weren’t allowed to vote as some unscrupulous elements had marked our faces and we were warned not to come out to vote.
“If una like una life and that small change wey dey una account, make we no see una for that polling unit[sic].”
Endsars ended up with nobody getting justice, I am pretty sure it would’ve been the same if we defied them. There was violence at the polling unit and soldiers had to come to restore order. I saw videos of my street on Twitter later that day.
A lot of us started entertaining the thought of leaving Nigeria.
Q2
Q2 was relatively quiet, I hit a milestone at work and got a raise. Which meant I was making more money than I made in the previous 3 years combined. I turned 25 and treated myself to a solo trip to Ghana. I may or may not have formed a music band in Accra.
I went out some more, explored new artists like Mannywellz, and lost more friends to the Japa wave. The exodus intensified after the elections and by June, I had more appearances at Murtala Muhammed than Messi has at the UCL finals just to say goodbye to my friends and wish them well.
Q3
In a shocking turn of events, I found a new football club to support and dissociated from Manchester United. When those ones are ready, they’ll take football seriously and stop being a charity. I predicted that the Carabao trophy win was a fugazi and they would fall apart in the new season.
I started following Sporting Lagos FC and I attended a couple of games during their preseason tournament and saw them lift the Super8 trophy.
I also became more responsible with my finances and I was invited to mentor younger students at my alma mater. This was wholesome as I was a menace back then. It felt weird walking down those corridors and it felt like I could hear that Peter Drury commentary from when Ronaldo made that stupid decision to ruin his legacy by coming back to Old Trafford.
August came with mixed feelings. I went on a scent journey and partied some more, I lost some more friends to the Japa wave and I walked out of an auto crash unscathed. I still remember that night at the intersection between Montgomery and Little Road in Yaba. The car was totaled and had to be towed. One wheel flew off and another blew up but luckily, there were no casualties. This is probably how my family is going to find out about the crash.
I also went bald.
I branched out and tried a different genre of writing too. Erotica. You can check my Gumroad profile and knock yourself out.
My visa decision also came in a week after the crash and I started preparing to leave Nigeria.
Fuel became very expensive in Q3 too.
Q4
The decision to move out of Nigeria for a new challenge was a tough one but the die was cast in February. Whatever hopes I had for Nigeria were crushed by the continued stay of APC at the federal level and in Lagos. I spent the first week of Q4 ticking off a few things on my bucket list of Nigerian things to do while in Nigeria. Don’t ask me what was on the list.
I moved to England in the second week ready to start a new life. Adjusting to a new life here wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Friends provided me with a soft landing and I spent the first week reconnecting with a lot of them and sightseeing.
Within a month, I got my apartment and a bicycle because I hate walking and it’s wasteful to take a bus to some places.
https://x.com/t13e_/status/1712896822019080522?s=46&t=mcyMvajVTyhA0ghXnFMLcA
I made new friends and continued gallery-hopping. I had to learn how to layer my clothes properly and I started taking the weather app on my phone seriously.
November came and a group trip to Belfast was top of mind. It was a reunion of sorts. A weekend filled with running to catch flights, no sleep, short naps in weird places, reuniting with old friends, partying, and sightseeing.
My job afforded me the luxury of always being on the move and within three months, I had visited loads of cities in the country. I have partied in Leicester, rode a Ferris wheel in Hull, missed my train in London, ate Egusi and pounded yam in Coventry and witnessed a bar fight in Sheffield.
I went to the stadium in my city to watch live league matches and it felt weird watching teams like that used to seem so far away play right in front of me. The atmosphere in the stadium was always electric and I started to participate in the chants too. So far I have watched 8 live matches and the experience has been great.
The last week of December saw me part ways with my company after almost two years of shaping its content, brand image, and tone of voice. My last daily standup almost moved me to tears. I should probably update my LinkedIn profile after I publish this post.
2023 was a great year. 2024 please look at your mate and do better.
