Entry 2: Lucky?

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Today Chinenye called me lucky, or blessed, I can’t remember the term she used exactly. For context, Chinenye used to be my school mother in secondary school. It warms my heart everytime I remember how we first started talking. 

Back then in school, during Christmas we used to do this thing called “secret santing” it goes without saying that we used to have secret Santas and it used to be such an interesting period. 

There would be random “aaahs” and “omg’s” as students would open up their lockers to see gifts they weren’t expecting. And then the suspicious looks and glares, wondering who the “secret Santa” was. 

It was mostly done voluntarily, so that year I had decided that I wanted to be a Secret Santa to Senior Chinenye, as she was popularly called then. I chose her because… to be fair I can’t even remember why I chose her of all people, we weren’t even friends, she was four years ahead of me. 

Oh, I remember now, it was the way she used to talk, I found it interesting and I just took a liking to her because of that, amongst other things. One thing led to another, from being her secret Santa, I found myself asking her to be my school mother and she said yes, lol. 

Since then, I think this was in 2013, we’ve somehow always kept in touch and now I can even say we’re friends, although our friendship dynamic is still like a mother-daughter one which is great honestly, it feels so good to be taken care of. 

She’s one of the few people who genuinely make me feel loved and appreciated, or maybe it’s just the way she is. And she knows me so well, especially when I’m about to start tearing up, like today when she was about to leave. 

When we were in secondary school, going to visit my school mother was such a big deal. I’d make sure to have my bathe that evening, put on my prettiest night gown, comb my hair, and even spray perfume 😂 just to visit my her. She in turn would either buy many random things for me from the tuck shop, or sneak in food from the dining hall, so I could enjoy my visit. Interesting stuff. 

Anyway she came into Abuja some days ago and I immediately reached out when I found out she was in my city. Of course one of us had to visit the other 😂 We agreed that she would come see me at the office today due to both our tight schedules. 

She came to see me at the office today and after giving me a hug, she next thing she said was “You’re lucky o, you’re working in a very nice place”. I’m paraphrasing because I can’t recall her exact words, I was just happy to see her. 

After a little bit of chit chat, she gave me the package she got for me and hugged me one last time before leaving. This was when I started thinking to myself “lucky?” 

I’d worked in my office for so long that it didn’t even seem like anything to be grateful for. But then again an image flashed through my mind,  I remembered when I used to pray to God, with tears in my eyes sometimes to get accepted in the hospitals I’d been applying to for my internship. 

For months on end, I’d send applications, sometimes even go to certain hospitals in person, hoping for a positive feedback, but none came. I’d pray to God, whine and complain to my family and friends about how God was taking too much time to answer my prayers. And now that I’ve been granted my petition? I don’t even realize it for the blessing that it is.