DIRECTIONLESS- WE CHANTED 'VISION 2020'

Feature Story

DIRECTIONLESS

As much as the year 2020 came with the prefix "Vision", and at a particular time, we screamed, spilled and chanted "Vision 2020", it's weird to think that the year left us completely "Clueless". - Temilola.

Right from the very first month of the year, "Uncertainties" crept in, one after the other, eating deep into our plans like the ants do to the hills.

Of all things, I had so much envisaged my graduation, I had dreamt of it day and night way before the pandemic came like a storm, I still didn't have a second thought about the year, I was so confident in the year! So hyped! So interested!

Then, it dawned on me when my daily routine began to be a mess, and the only thing I had to my day was my phone, I was becoming a pro at being unproductive. Twitter became home, I had a family on Instagram, WhatsApp was the most welcoming and I didn't even see that my priorities were in shambles.

I confirmed the date, 11/11/2020, it was my parent's wedding anniversary but something else rang a bell, it's been 8 months since ASUU embarked on this strike. I picked up my phone from the couch where I had dropped it 2hours ago because I was going to think about my life, yes, that's the amount of stunt all of these pulled on my mental health, opened my Twitter app and I tweeted "I can't believe I am still a university student in November, 2020." Really brief but heavens could testify that I did bare my heart in that tweet, at that point, I was honestly exhausted and heartbroken.

Everyday, I expected a miracle, checked the news headlines, longed for a positive outcome of their marathon meetings, prayed silently in my heart and at some point, I gave up! It was stressful! Really stressful to get my hopes high and get them shattered later on. To think that some of my friends randomly and playfully threw it at my face that graduation was no longer feasible this year made it even more painful, I vowed never to forgive ASUU and FG! (Don't ask if I have).

My parents stopped rating me (or how do y'all say it? - something I learnt from the SM this year), I became a full time cook and a sophisticated errand girl, I had my name called times without number to do one thing or the other around the house, but one thing I kept in check was to avoid any unnecessary relationship that boredom was willing to offer - it's not going to make sense, I repeated this to myself everyday, it worked!

It was like the devil took it's time to mock me when a particular week, three of my friends sent me a WhatsApp message to say they got a part-time job. I read the messages and I murmured my "most said word" at that time "Omooooo". I didn't realize that I had ignored their messages until 2days and I felt sorry just myself, I was letting all of these get to me.

I didn't see all of these coming, so, I am allowed to feel just how I want to feel!

It was November and December was lurking, I gathered my thoughts together one morning, I stopped being miserable, I stopped being ungrateful, I had been productive and I couldn't even see it! I launched my brand in October! Someone sent me a message to consider having another Book chat, just like the one I had in June, How did I miss out on these when I was checking if to see if I had ever been productive in the past months?I realized, the present realities of life would never help us see the light that we have created if we do not believe in our own magic.

They have still kept us home but I have forgiven the FG and Asuu, I hope they do better, I hope they see that our broken heart is taking time to heal, I hope they agree that no excuse would fix their nonchalance, I hope they see that they have been terrible, I hope the strike ends soon.

Most importantly, I hope that an average Nigerian student would never have to question his course duration because of the glaring ineffectiveness of the Government.

Contribute: Temilola (FUNAAB)

Edited and Published by Directionless