Wine, Chocolate and Other Lessons from the Past 100 Days

Final Entry: By Yours truly, David I. Adeleke

The past 100 days of my life have been both painful and rewarding. In the past 100 days, I have lost and I have gained friends. I have lost people to death and a few have been brought into the world. In the past 100 days, I have embraced God and I have pushed Him away, and then embraced Him again and pushed Him away; a cycle that doesn’t seem to end. In the past 100 days I have learned and I have unlearned. But most importantly, in the past 100 days, I have grown a lot as I trust you have too as you have followed this project.

Just Another Little Girl With Big Passions by Rosebud Anwuri #100DaysOfGrowth

All my life I heard: Set goals. Set short term, middle term, half way in between, long term and after-you-die goals. It made me a little bit depressed because while I was a really passionate person (a nice word for very crazy), I never seemed to be able to reach goals I set for myself so let's say I was unmotivated. I kept trying to understand why I was not this highly driven person in life, why I wasn't like every other smart person and at some point I just stopped bothering.

Amanda John's #100DaysOfGrowth Entry

Twitter (@pwetyface)              

Staying Positive; Recovering from the Past

I’d contemplated a million things to write, then I went to church and realized; the best place to start, is from home. I’d originally wanted this to be written anonymously, but realised a sign of growth would be my ability to stand and face my reality.

Who Will Bell the Cat? by Humphrey Ovias #100DaysOfGrowth

Image Source: Washington Edu

Who will bell the cat for me? Who will remove the ache from my sour heart? Who will take me to the place where no one will find me? Questions ravaging my young mind before it got polluted by my mischievous experience. Lest I forget, dare I say I was older than my age. Oh dear, the things I saw, did and happened to me. I walked around with heavy weights on my shoulder given my bloated and ageing Y-chromosomes.

Kazeem Oguntade's #100DaysOfGrowth Entry (1)

When I got an invitation from my friend David to write this, I smiled, because I felt it was something I could do very easily till I got on it. The idea is awesome, we get to learn from others and also people get to learn from us. Now let's get started before I bore you with some of my analogies…

My name is Kazeem, a proud Muslim who has been to Christian schools 80% of his education years. I owe everything I am to God, and even though we will agree that I am pretty not much yet, I am a project in the making. I will break down my entry into 2 parts; first of which I will share the things I know that have helped me to grow progressively.

Blessing Abeng Shares Her #100DaysOfGrowth Story

Entry 24 by Blessing Abeng (Twitter: @Ms_Einstenette)

It was time for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) posting after graduation from university. I proceeded to the hall to receive my posting letter which indicated that I was posted to Imo. I was happy and thrilled at the possibility of a new experience. It was going to be my first trip to the eastern part of Nigeria. It is important to state that my parents have always been very particular about shielding me within their strong protective arms and the only time they loosened their grip was when I started my education in university because they trusted the spiritual and discipline driven environment to keep me in check. I wasn’t choked, I was given a sense of freedom. Let me frame it this way, I am not the ant covered with a glass cup, I am the ant in the glass cup. I can see the skies, run around its base and try to climb out of it but not succeed. So this Imo posting was an amazing chance to finally climb out of the glass.

When Is Tomorrow? Wake Up! #100DaysOfGrowth

Entry 23 by Blessing Abeng (Twitter: @Ms_Einsteinette)

Image Source: Deola Akinyemi

I know I am supposed to write about an experience that has helped me grow for the 100 days of growth project and I figured sharing this experience would trigger the feeling that was triggered in me when I stumbled on some truths and reevaluated my reality. If you can, screen grab and share to your friends via social media platforms (Twitter, IG, etc.). You can blog on it or share as posts on Facebook, Tumblr, etc.

Damilare Adedeji Shares His Growth Story #100DaysOfGrowth

Entry 22 by Damilare Joseph Adedeji (Twitter: @dami_maverick)
 

“It’s never long distance between real friends” — Sebastian

While those words sound like the deep musings of the animated crab in the Disney classic “Little Mermaid”, they were spoken by a seasoned German footballer to his friend and teammate on his departure to the soccer shores of England. They are the words that resonate in my heart even as I pick my pen to document a snapshot of my journey of growth and the discovery of myself.

Abimbola Oshodi's #100DaysOfGrowth Entry

Entry 21 by Bimbo Oshodi (Twitter: @_bimbee_)

I struggled with this post for weeks, (side eyes David) partly because I'm still not sure of what growth is, and partly because I'm in a really 'slow phase' of my life right now. 

One verse that comes to mind when discussing growth and that's totally relatable is: The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible]. (Psalm 92:12 AMP)

Toluwani Obayan - A Part Of My Story #100DaysOfGrowth

Entry 20 by Toluwani Obayan

In the year 1999 my family and I moved back to Nigeria from the United Kingdom in obedience to an instruction God had given. He also told us that upon our return we would encounter stormy times, we took stormy to mean bad electricity and bad water supply (lol), but those were by far the least of our problems. My sharing here is not going to be about what my family went through but about a personal experience which I very well considered to be a storm as young as I was then.

Growth is Constant by Ike Amadi

Entry 19 by Ike Amadi (Twitter: @IkeAmadi)

Growth is constant in life. If you are not growing you are dying.

Angel Okwuosa Shares her #100DaysOfGrowth Story

Entry 18 by Angel Okwuosa (Twitter: @angelokwuosa)

Image Source: Isha Foundation

First of all, I must note that when I was first asked this question, I thought to myself; have I truly grown? I examined my life and although I could see elements of growth in almost all areas, the only tangible growth I could pick out was my hair growth, and to an extent even that wasn’t satisfactory. But as I examine my life in sparse but meaningful words, maybe in the process we will both see how I’ve grown (or shrunken- God forbid!)

Tanure's Journey by Eloho Onwah #100DaysOfGrowth

 Entry 17 by Eloho Onwah (Twitter: @Eloxie)

It was his send forth, the last day of his internship. Tanure looked around at the people that had become like family and sighed. Three months ago, his mum had told him he was going to be spending his summer interning at his uncle’s firm. He had his own ideas alongside his friends as to what they planned to do for summer, working wasn’t one and certainly not with his uncle. Looking back now, he could hardly believe how much he had changed.  He literally said to himself under his breath ‘is me be this?’ It felt as though he had gone through his own Karate Kid experience with lessons in every twist.

Alexandra Shares Her #100DaysOfGrowth Story

Entry 16 by Alexandra Omogbadegun (Twitter: @AlexandraZion)

I must say that with God’s help, I have grown in so many ways and I am still growing. However, I would really like to share this one that put me through a furnace-test of balance, love and commitment.

Damilola Oguntimoju Shares Her #100DaysOfGrowth Story

Entry 15 by Damilola Oguntimoju

First off, I want to appreciate this platform for the opportunity to share. Thank you very much, David!

A few months ago, one notion came to my mind when I heard or saw the word "growth". Today, its different. I had always known I grew up too fast. I had some experiences at a rather tender age that others didn't have till much later. It was a good thing. It enabled me flow with persons much older than I and made me relate better with my peers. Hence, I had a rational, mature mind. I always thought I was ready for anything life had to dish me. However, nothing could have prepared me for the future I was about to encounter. 

I Lost 2 Jobs, So What? #100DaysOfGrowth

Entry 14 by: Yours truly, David I. Adeleke (Twitter: @DavidIAdeleke)

Recently, I have had a lot of free time. A month ago I had 2 jobs: I was an intern at a consulting firm and was also a part-time writer for a startup (I was also earning a monthly allowance as a Nigerian Youth Service Corps member). As of now, I am officially unemployed as I was let go by the startup and I was not retained after the internship ended. Normally, this should get me worried or sad but I am not. So, for two weeks, I have barely left the house, except to go for church programmes or finalize my clearance for the National Youth Service scheme that I will pass out from in a couple of days.

Seyi Popoola Shares His #100DaysOfGrowth Story

Entry 13 by: Seyi Popoola (Twitter: @Seyipops)

I appreciate the author of this project David Adeleke for this opportunity to share things that have contributed to my growth in my very little time on earth. I know it would be a blessing alongside the other stories and experiences shared by others.

I must also add that I am a lifelong learner and I have not yet perfected my experience in the aspects I would be sharing on but as Paul mentioned in the Bible “I press on towards the mark of the high calling forgetting the things behind me”.

I would be sharing my experience on the mental, spiritual and social aspects. There are some habits that have contributed to all the aspects and I would like to review them before sharing on the aspects. 

Sola Fagbemi Shares Her #100DaysOfGrowth Story

Entry 12 by: Sola Fagbemi (Twitter: @Solafagbemi)

When I was asked by David to write on a particular event that inspired growth in my life, I couldn’t help but ask myself if I had experienced growth worth talking about.

I’m presently interning at ‘X’. My boss asked me a simple question, “what do you do?” When he asked the question I thought about it and realized how much time I spent in the virtual world (on the internet) and how much little time I spent in reality.

Allow Pain To Forge You by Daniel Olushola

Entry 11 by: Daniel Olushola (Twitter: @DanielOlushola)

Image Source: Nick Fleming

Now, I wouldn’t consider myself as a grown man. How can I? Should I judge myself by the tiny strands of beards growing out of my jaw or scale myself by how much of my statue I can frame or maybe to label myself by the little knowledge I spill, borrowed at will from dead men long gone just to excite my admirers and submit them to awe from my prideful display of thoughts-actually epitaphic wisdom; heavily obsessing myself with quoting sages of ages past and losing my own ability to think.

The Awesomeness of Polymathy by Olaoluwa Oyedele

Entry 10 by: Olaoluwa Oyedele (Twitter: @Mr_Oyedele)

What does it mean to be a polymath? To put it simply, it is to be the opposite of a specialist. It means possessing skills in a wide range of fields or disciplines without any overt specialization. It entails possessing the ability to be useful in a broad spectrum of endeavours.

Some people are of the opinion that human beings were designed to be natural polymaths, but societal demands and education gradually erode the natural disposition towards polymathy. One of the more relevant fathers of psychology, Carl Jung, was of the opinion that he could create any type of person out of any type of child. Although the basis for his assertions were different, they do point to the natural human tendency to become polymaths. After all, if the innate ability to morph into any type of person is absent, behaviour modification techniques will be rendered useless.