Another Year!


In a few days I'll be wishing this year goodbye. Not only is it the end of the year for everyone it is the end of another year of my life and the beginning of a new one. When I was much younger I thought the end of the year was a really cool time, for it was the one time of the year when everyone in my family got together to celebrate several events, christmas, wedding anniversaries and birthdays and the celebrations seemed to be unending until the beginning of a new year and the start of another school year brought to an end the state of euphoria we were all in.


This time last year I was a scout looking for and following the trends of an epidemic on the front seat of a 4X4, this year I am a student again, back to the classroom I left 'many' years ago:) urging my brain cells to be as active as they were five years ago. Three years ago I was an intern assisting in gynecologic surgeries and performing my first ceasarian sections. When I was five years old I was in my hometown eating fried rice and chicken and strawberry and vanilla ice-cream and generally having a good time with my cousins, and other relations. When I was sixteen I received a present of pink lace from my parents, Yes I was once sweet sixteen!:)


I have learnt many lessons this year and know that I am much wiser than I was a year ago (hopefully).

I have learnt that the world will go on without you whether you like it or not.

I have learnt that the pretty things in life are not often the best.

I have learnt that family and friends are more important than a brilliant career, for even when you have reached the peak of your career and have nothing more to do, your friends and family will welcome you back into their fold without reserve.

I have learnt that I can do without having all the things I think I need.

I have learnt that I can make my own joy and have a celebration without having a reason to celebrate.

I have learnt that I wont drop down dead if I take off one whole day to rest:).

I have learnt to stop complaining about how people behave but to seek to be more like the person I wish they could be.


There are many more lessons I have learnt and many more God is pointing my way. I dont know where I will be one year from now but I hope and pray that I will once again be able to sit down and write about my memories at this time of the year and look back and conclude that the past year has been a pretty decent one.

Comments

  1. Spesh6:38 AM

    Yea,we all await the new year with optimism.....May we live to see it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good Naija Girl10:11 AM

    Oh, you have learned a lot...and by sharing them with us we can think on them too! Some of my favourites from your list are:


    I have learnt that I can do without having all the things I think I need.

    I have learnt to stop complaining about how people behave but to seek to be more like the person I wish they could be.

    So true!

    Happy New Year in advance, and wishing you all the best in the new year, Olaoluwatomi!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bomi12:48 PM

    I agree with Myworld...May we live to see this and many other new years! Thanks Tomi for this post, lots of great lessons in there..

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Death III

Image
In recounting my near misses, I can't but think of how many other misses I am unaware of. As a child, I was the only one who was hospitalized a few times compared to my siblings and cousins. I cannot remember if I ever felt sick enough to be at deaths door, but I do know I disliked getting injections. During one of my trips to the hospital I was to receive a Novalgin injection, for those of you old enough to remember Novalgin, it was the most painful torturous injection ever. I screamed hell and blue murder as the nurse approached with a Novalgin shot. 'I don't take injections', I lamented in my most piteous voice, you would think anyone with a heart would see the tears and back down but those nurses were a special breed. After a few minutes of my temporary madness, my father was summoned, it took just one look from him and I accepted the drilling of the syringe through my marrow (that was what it felt like) without as much as a squeak. The feeling Novalgin gave your bu...
Read more

Death 5

Image
Over the past few years, I have observed with much more attention, the passage of generations. I listened to the retirement speech of an old teacher of mine in medical school. She spoke about wondering why a classmate of hers in high school was bereft because her father had died in his 50s. Her own parents were in their 30s and according to her, she thought 50 was ancient. She tactlessly commented about her friends grief wondering why she was so distraught. She made us all laugh when she mentioned that now at the age of 70, she does not count herself as one of the ancients. My job brings me face to face with death on a daily basis and this has spurred me to put my house in order. I have had documents prepared for the disposal of my earthly benefits and I have appointed financial and health power of attorneys. I mention, like I mentioned in my last post to prevent the DMs that never fail to follow these posts, that I am not actively dying but I think preparing for death is as important ...
Read more

My Mother Tongue!

I grew up speaking English as my first language and I can tell you that is one fact I am not proud about. I remember once when we were much younger shouting out the only Yoruba words we knew as children 'olosi', 'oloriburuku' etc. My grandmother came out of the house hurriedly to put a stop to our foolishness, what on earth did we think we were doing? she asked, our reply still puts a smile on my face 'we are speaking Yoruba' we replied. My lack of proficiency in speaking Yoruba ( I can write it:) is revealed anytime I speak to my patients. When our conversation is not just me answering in monosyllables, I begin to speak rapidly in my mother tongue but by the end of my first two sentences, I hear myself stuttering and stammering and Im wondering if the patients don't think this doctor is having a sudden attack of catatonia! My Yoruba teacher in Secondary school summed up my Yoruba speaking prowess to my parents during an open day 'She is a good student b...
Read more