Hey there 👋,

Happy New Year to you. I wish you a prosperous new year in good health and a sound mind.

Sigh!

2020 was a year, wasn't it? The year where we all stayed at home, worked from home, schooled from home, wore fewer pants...or even better, got rid of the pants, attended online meetings than we can ever keep count.

Phewww, I hope 2021 comes bearing greater news.

Checkout the socks

Recently, a friend messaged me and asked this question 👇🏽. After replying, I decided to share the response here.

Chat with Nana

It might be a tad different from yours. For me, I finished my undergrad schooling in 2014. As at then, my goal was not to have a professional life per se. I pretty much did it because everyone was doing it.

Realizing that formal Education was not a direct reflection of my worth helped build my confidence and approach to life.

I will explain further. I realized early enough that my degree was not going to give me an edge in the job market, why? I studied computer science, and I was interested in software development. Realizing that anyone could be a software developer without having a formal degree, made me look at education in a different light. I directed the attention even whilst schooling, to learning as much as I could out of the confines of my degree.

Understanding this humbled me, in a sense, and I knew I had to learn as much as I could, learn from colleagues, learn from juniors, setting all pride or “qualifications” aside and figuring out how to get a task done.

The other thing is “Age”. Throughout my professional years/working years, the phrase “Age is nothing but a number” became more visible. I am usually the youngest in my circles/work environments. Realizing that I am good enough to be able to sit at any table I find myself without holding back, irrespective of the age differences or years of experience was golden. Whilst also realizing this, I picked a lot of lessons from people I work with.

Money.....Yes, after school, you will start earning more money and as the year goes by, you will earn even more money. Realizing that money on its own cannot give happiness, was golden. There is a danger of wanting even more money, most times when this happens, we fail to acknowledge the little wins around, we fail to smell the roses along the way, why? For some reasons, we are conditioned to always “chase the bag”. But in reality, the bag can never be caught, that is just how life is. Enjoy the little win, take good care of yourself in the process. The best things in life are cheap.

More on money; When you start earning, you need to realize that the salary you earn is not a direct reflection of who you are/your abilities.

On Relationships, you can only go as far as the people you surround yourself with. If you are constantly with people that suck out your joy/life without giving back, it will leave you drained. It is always good to have close friends that have the same goal to "life" as you do. That way, you all encourage each other and lift each other up when one is slacking. If you get lucky to have a partner at a younger stage, awesome. It is always good to grow and build together. It is easy to ignore love when all is well and smooth. Family is always important.

On Spirituality, realizing that all I am, all that I hope to be is nothing without Gods direction, without Gods say so. Even when you have the best of all intentions, It is easy to be busy with life, get caught in moments and gradually forget about God, forget about your spirituality. Realizing that, irrespective of how much I fall away from Grace, He is still there to catch me without resentment, without holding back.

Cheers to a New Year

-- Fifi