Arsenal lost.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm in pain.

But first, from where to where? Since when did Favour Okwanyionu start liking football? And not just liking it, but passionately supporting a club?

Alright,,, let's go back to the beginning.

I didn't care about football. Not because there was anything remotely wrong with the sport, but because it simply wasn't interesting enough for me. I would often ask, "Why are 22 grown adults running around after one ball?" It seemed laughable.

However, I have this friend who talks about football all the time on his status. Every major match, every football season, I wouldn't have peace. His status would be packed full of memes, updates, predictions, and banter.

Over time, after constantly seeing his posts, I got used to them. I might not have watched a single match, but I usually knew what was happening because of his status updates and his very cruel memes.

Now, sometime in early May, I came across a particular video on his status. It was absolutely hilarious. It was an Arsenal fan being overly dramatic about a match scheduled for May 30.

In the video, the guy was checking his blood pressure, avoiding unnecessary arguments, staying away from confrontations, and whenever anyone insulted him, he'd simply say, "Make 30th of May come first."

It was both hilarious and strange.

So I slid into my friend's DM to ask what exactly was happening on May 30. He told me it was the Champions League final and gave me the background story of why it was such a big deal for Arsenal fans.

Then he said something that stayed with me.

He said Arsenal had never won the Champions League, and the closest they had ever come to winning it was in 2006.

Dearest reader, guess who was born in 2006?

Like,,, burst my brain. I couldn't believe it.

That's when I started researching the club to confirm his statement. Somewhere between the articles, the videos, the history, and the heartbreak, I fell in love with the club. I fell in love with the resilience, I fell in love with the story. And like a storyteller I deeply admire would say, Arsenal is a great story.

Because it is.

This is a club that earned the nickname "The Invincibles" after going through an entire 38 game league season unbeaten, only to spend the next 22 years waiting to win the Premier League again.

How do you not get emotionally attached to a story like that?

So after discovering this emotional rollercoaster of a football club, and realizing that 2006, the year I was born, was also the last time they came close to winning the Champions League, I became hooked.

Because what do I love almost as much as a good story?

A good emotional story.

I even became the one reminding my football status guy about May 30. That's how invested I was. I was eagerly counting down to it.

You know those stories with happily ever afters? The ones where the hero suffers, struggles, survives the unimaginable, and eventually wins?

Yes. That's what I was expecting.

In fact, I was convinced this season would be it.

Now imagine my heartbreak when the game ended in a penalty shootout. Just imagine.

It feels like that scene in The Fault in Our Stars where Augustus Waters discovers his cancer has returned and says, "I lit up like a Christmas tree."

Or that scene in How to Get Away with Murder when Wes Gibbins dies in that burning house.

That's exactly how heartbreaking it feels. Because you'd think that after everything they've been through, this would finally be their moment.

But then there's reality, there's the unpredictability of life. Let's be honest, there's nothing quite as painful as an almost. Because it feels so close, so within arm's reach, you can smell the victory, you can imagine how it would feel sitting on your skin, you can already taste it on the tip of your tongue.

And then, just then, it slips away and here I am. Furious. Devastated. Hurt.

And hell no, I'm not about to give some deep insight into why we lost or offer a comforting perspective on the pain.

For the record, "you people tried na" does not make it any better.

Abeg, carry your sympathy far from me😑

Okay bye.

@favvy_Okwans🖤.