Favvy_Okwans🖤

You guyssssssss, I'm doing a daily review of each of the stories in the book The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This book is a collection of 12 short stories, much like the moonlight folktales we read in primary school. Each story, no matter how short, is deeply emotional and easily relatable. Here's what I have to say about Story 1. Story 1: Cell One I loved how descriptive it was. It felt like I could feel the underlying emotions. The story centres around a lecturer's family in Nsukka, particularly their son, Nnamabia, who was the favourite child. He was charming, handsome, popular, and the kind of kid who got away with a lot of things. He wasn't a cultist, but he was arrested alongside some of his cultist friends when they were drinking past curfew, and that's how he ended up in a cell. At first, he didn't seem shaken by the conditions. He played smart, became a favourite among the inmates, and generally appeared to be doing o...

For someone who has been directly affected by this, I will always say there is a thin line between admiration and idolization. Every case of idolization starts off as admiration before gradually transcending into fixation. One of the major side effects of idolizing a person is that you forget they are human too. You forget that they have flaws, that they can be wrong, and that they are capable of making mistakes. This is dangerous because, as I once read somewhere, "When you look up to somebody, you tend to become vulnerable to an extent." It was Eric Guaaga who profoundly said, and I quote: "Don’t put yourself in a position where you are at the mercy of someone else’s intention and they don’t have the capacity to do right by you." This is one of the dangers of making idols out of the people we look up to. The vulnerability that comes with idolization places you in a position where you are at the mercy of another person's intentions. For instance, if Chimamanda ...

I've said this before, and it's really something I think works. Not just for me, but I've seen it play out multiple times. One of the reasons we're able to keep streaks is because consistency helps itself. If I've had a 30 day streak with my best friend, I wouldn't want to end it. So even if I don't feel like showing up one day, the thought that it all disappears if I don't keep it up is enough to make me continue. You get? My roommate was showing me a 200 day streak she has with a friend of hers, and they even have a child together called "Meli." It was so cute and cool. She would seriously not go to bed without sending her streak partner a video because the fact that she has been consistent so far is enough to compel her to keep going, even on days she doesn't feel like it. That's exactly how it was for me two days ago. I had one of the most hectic days ever. I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was sleep. But I hadn...

Today, we are properly ranting. Yes, because I've been angry about something since 8am, and the Bible says you shouldn't let the sun go down on your anger. Hence, I'll let it go in this piece. **** I'm not an angry person. In fact, I'm the kind of person you meet and, on the very first day, we'll relate so well you'd think we've known each other forever. However, you don't want to get on my bad side. My thing is, and I think this should be basic human decency: I won't treat you in a way I don't want you to treat me. I won't speak to you in a manner I can't stand. It's that simple. So this morning, somebody I don't even know replied rudely to a message and suggestion I dropped in our Chemistry practical group chat. I was so pissed because, from where to where? If the response had anything to do with what I said, I would understand. But no. It was completely vague, out of context, and, again, rude. My first thought was, is this ...

I've had one of the most hectic days ever and as I think back to how it went, I'm impressed. I was literally doing so much at the same time and I couldn't understand how I do it, but I just do. There are days where you literally outdo yourself and the reward is being properly tired. Oh, how nice it is to be tired from doing what we once could only imagine, hope for, or pray about. Sometimes we get so caught up in the exhaustion that we forget to acknowledge the growth. We forget that there was a version of us that wished for opportunities, responsibilities and experiences that now make up our everyday lives. Today was stressful. It was demanding, it stretched me in ways I didn't expect, but it also reminded me that I am capable of more than I often give myself credit for. So dearest reader, I am allowing myself to be tired. Not frustrated or defeated. Just tired. The kind of tired that comes from showing up, giving your best and getting things done. And for that, I am g...

In a world where almost everybody is so careful about giving love, showing affection, and being all in, I genuinely feel that you can't fully experience the best of life if you don't give yourself to the risky business of being all in. You can't be too careful. If you're skeptical about people and scared of loving deeply and truly, how then will you discern the genuine from the fake? Someone once said so brilliantly, "You haven't found real love because you haven't given it." Have you genuinely gone all out? Or do you flee before it gets real enough to hurt you? Do you take the experiences of others as your truth and, in doing so, deny yourself depth? I read somewhere that when we stop walking in love, we begin walking out of depth. Everything becomes surface level, all topsoil and shallow layers that never truly stick. You're unable to be authentically yourself because you're scared. That's not even cowardice; it's simply being cruel t...