22 in 21, cheers to another year in orbit

So I should have written this piece and posted it since, but then late is better than never, so I’ll write it anyway(sorry, it has become a sort of yearly rite I have to fulfill. started at 20, I guess by the time I’m 80, I’ll have a memoir without having to lift a pen, lol)

Once again, I guess a belated Happy birthday to me again, my birthday was (when was it even?????) oh yeah!!! Sunday, gosh!!! I hope it’s not stale saying Happy birthday to myself today, Thursday, not in my opinion I think, I mean we still greet each other Happy new year till like second week in January or the first time we see each other, whenever that is even if July, lol, so I guess this is our first meeting.

This year, for at least a week before my birthday, my song has been “A million little miracles” by Elevation worship and Maverick City Music cause it best describe how I felt/feel. Yunno the second best part of the song for me was the part the song writers said “…. don’t even ask me how cause I can’t explain, it’s nothing short of miracle that I’m here…” this here is exactly how it feels, the song resonates so much with my last 365 days, it’s been full of ups and down, low points like the point I was robbed or in the proper lingo “obtained” at Ojuelegba and my phone was stolen, my account wiped and the very next week, my laptop’s screen broke, God!!!! I don’t even know how to describe that period, not to talk of the pandemic and the whole lockdown, forced to go home, ASUU strike, one year education on hold and the myriad of things that followed or the period I was learning machine learning and data science (I’m still learning, lol) on my one gig RAM phone and before I could move between two tabs, I had to start from the beginning all over again, lol, desperate times but never gave up, I guess I was made for this shii.. And high points, like the time I was working on a startup, Lifebox, with a friend, thank you Joseph Anya for the opportunity to join you on that journey, really exposed me to a lot of things I though I knew but never did or things I would have known. PANS convention and all the beautify people I met from that meeting, working on my newsletter, sending 20 issues since the first one I sent February this year and seeing my subscribers go from one to 90, still little by some people’s metric, but this is my story, gotta own it and thus I appreciate everyone that came on board to listen to me tell the story of innovation in health care space in Nigeria and Africa. I guess why my song has been

But birthdays are usually a different time for me, they are usually a sober day for me, a day of reflection, a day of evaluation and a day of prayer. I remember last year, my desire for the next one year (Lol, I had to go peep on my Instagram to confirm that I think it is is what it is) and clearly at the beginning of the year, I remember my goal is growth, growth in all ramifications and to be true, I have grown, I’m not the person I was last year, not the person I was in January, I’ve grown, up-skilled now, at least I don’t feel so much like a fraud when I call myself a data scientist (I still feel like a fraud tho) but I’ve grown to know I don’t move by emotions, I am because I am, working at Lifebox as exposed me to some experiences I could only imagine (yunno when you think working in a startup, you think all the glossy and soft things in life, loooooool), writing 19 issues (technically 20 cause the first was on Substack before I migrated to Revue) has exposed me to edge of some valuable knowledge which I now graciously write about, grown my networks across social networks like Twitter ( and this is not even about followers), grown spiritually (even though I’m still struggling now) God!!!! Talking with God now feels like gist time, lool, had a wonderful and one of the most amazing time with my family, connected better with my friends even in the middle of the pandemic, made new ones🤩, almost found love😂😂😂, seen my friends grown and win also and most importantly, found my mission, my drive, what I’m here to do. In all, it’s been a bittersweet experience.

Now I’m at this point, yes, I have an idea of what I’m here to do, by next year I’ll be out of school and life will take its full force (should’ve been this year but corona and ASUU, can’t blame them), I can’t but ask myself once again, I mean to be sure “ why I’m doing this?” Is it because I actually believe this is it, what I’m meant to do, to be doing, what I’m meant to be or probably because it looks like my get-out-of-poverty scheme, lol, I mean it’s not bad to want the best things in life, to want to drive lamborghinis, to want to go on vacation to Maldives and Dubai every now and then, to want to spoil my friends and family dirty because, why not? I just don’t think that will suffice for me or because I believe this is where I’ll be of the greatest help to humanity, helping drive change to those that have been long forgotten, bring innovation to the way we have always known to things, I think it is, the closest thing to it. I think in my process of that growth, it’s time for me to take that leap, Gosh!!!!!!! How much I hate crashing. I won’t lie to myself like all your “Aspire to Maguire” coaches, so I won’t expect it to be easy, hassle-free or with crashing pads waiting for me, I guess I’m ready for the ride as much as the crashes, so gotta face my fears and hope like one of my favorite writers Cullin McGrath author of the newsletter, Thinking Loud, I’m better for it at the end of the day, who knows? Time will surely tell (you should read his piece on ”The stakes in taking leaps”) and while we figure everything out, wondering what will be, I’ll keep his other advise close to my heart “Keep your head down, the rest will come” (I really hope they do).

To friends that remain, that are here today, the ones we lost, the ones we are going to make soon, I say cheers, you all are the real champs. To being 22 in 21, like a phrase I like from a popular song y’all know “Extraordinary things I’m doing, ordinary things no dey move me again”, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAMP.🥂🥂🥂