I’m happy to launch my website www.oreoluwa.com after what feels like many, many years in the making.
On my website, I curate information about my work and interests (books, career development, social entrepreneurship, technology and women living their best lives). You can also continue to read my blog posts there, which means that I will no longer be posting on this blog.
Blogging has featured significantly in my life for the last decade and a half. I started blogging in 2005 with my 1st blog Ore’s Notes, when the Nigerian blogosphere was a thing. Although I haven’t been able to match the frequency and output of those earlier years (I sometimes blogged twice a day!!), I still treasure the avenue and platform that blogging gives me to write and share my writing with the world.
Please follow me on my new blog and don’t forget to sign-up to my mailing list to receive regular updates from me.
Girls at a programme of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC)
At the end of April, I had the opportunity to co-moderate a discussion on Clubhouse for the first time – with Jumoke Adegbonmire of WillFran Consulting – on the topic “Educational Technology for Girls in Africa.”
The Current Landscape:
The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the educational system across the world has been well-discussed and covered over the last year. The results that are emerging (and that will continue to for years to come, many experts suspect) are that students attending well-funded schools tended to fare better. Many of such schools has already invested in the technology infrastructure and systems that enabled them to transition more easily to online mode of learning. It doesn’t mean that it was a totally smooth process, but at least the schools had the equipment already in place, their students were fairly comfortable already using these tools for their school work and they had the required internet and devices at home to enable their learning online.
Then, we saw schools at the other end of the spectrum, with no or severely limited access to any form of technology. Such schools were typically (at least in Nigeria) publicly-funded or low-cost income schools with students whose parents were more from the low to lower-middle class economic strata. In such schools, learning came to a complete halt. Some of these schools were able to get back-up offering a mixture of more accessible digital tools and platforms, such as WhatsApp.
Some Nigerian state governments implemented a system of teaching via radio and television. These were all very well-intentioned, though did not account for the millions of students who lacked constant electricity to enable them access these teachings. And then learning is a two-way street: information is passed to the learner and then the instructor confirms that the student has understood what is being taught. Radio and TV do not really offer the opportunity to do the latter, unless perhaps they are being used under the supervision of an instructor who the students have direct access to.
The Challenges:
Participants in the room shared their own experiences working around the challenges posed by the pandemic. I talked about the experiences of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) implementing our programmes during the schools shut-down.
In our W.TEC Academy programmes (a weekly after-school technology club implemented pre-COVID for over 200 students in 12 schools across Kwara State and for 120 students in 2 schools in Ogun State), we were able to only continue working with 23 students in Kwara and none in Ogun.
And most of the girls we worked with in Kwara State were not part of our Academy programme, rather they were girls who had the required internet-enabled devices that learning virtually required.
This was a common experience among members of our room and so the discussion shifted to ways to address this access gap.
Dr. Olusola, a Nigerian researcher based in Cape Town, South Africa spoke about the importance of advocacy efforts to secure donations of needed infrastructure for public schools especially. This led to us exploring how easy such advocacy efforts were. In many African countries, access to the government is not always easy and even when relationships are established with key personnel, a change in administration could mean that relationships have to be cultivated with the new public officials. This pointed to the importance of engaging on the policy level – rather than on a micro level – to ensure that education and especially technology infrastructure and access are prioritised by legal backing.
The we examined what other obstacles were limiting girls access to and use of technology for learning and this led to the discussion of how less likely girls were than boys to have access to or use technology. And then how, in turn, girls were less likely to study STEM subjects in school.
Factors identified as contributing to this gap included stereotypes of technology being better-suited for men and a lack of visible female technology role models.
Rose of She Codes for Change, a nonprofit in Tanzania working to bridge the gender gap in technology, shared how good Maths scores are a pre-requisite to studying many technology subjects and how there is a huge perception of maths as being a difficult subject. If girls don’t think they will do well in Maths, they were less likely to pick courses of study in university that required Maths.
The Way Forward:
Winifred Ereyi of Women in Technology International (WITI) talked about how she was encouraged to pursue STEM careers primarily because they had the good fortune to meet women who were able to show how Science and Engineering were linked to their everyday play activities, such as building pretend houses, cooking and baking and exploring puddles and streams in the neighbourhood.
It is obvious that it is crucial to have teachers and role models who are able to bring STEM to life and connect it to girls’ realities. With many teachers going through an educational system that promotes rote learning, they are not always equipped to feed students’ curiousity and support their learning in this way.
Encouraging girls to want to study STEM-related subjects is just one part of the journey. Supporting women so they succeed and stay in STEM careers requires thoughtful and strategic planning.
Bernadette of Cameroon (now based in Germany) shared how in her experience, many women turn down work projects that would bring deeper learning and opportunities for professional advancement if they believe these will clash with their abilities to be a “good mother and wife”, which they frequently equate to having the time to devote to their family-centered activities. So many women start to back away from accepting these projects and opportunities, what Sheryl Sandberg called “leaning away.”
It’s obvious that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to levelling the playing field for girls and women in the technology and STEM landscape. It’s also apparent that a long-term, strategic, multi-sectoral approach is needed.
So each of us in the space will continue to do our bit as hope that gradually, we reach that tipping point where our respective efforts snowball into a cascading waterfall of change.
How life has changed. Does that sound like a cliche? Perhaps, but let me explain what I mean.
I grew-up in a firmly middle-class family. Both my parents were engineers. They themselves grew-up in what were probably considered middle-class homes. They had the benefit of being born into families that cared about education and were determined that their children be educated .
In the 1950s and ’60s, when my parents grew-up, education was regarded as the absolute leveler. In some cases, with just a secondary school education, a world of opportunities opened-up to you and you could secure jobs that afforded you a comfortable enough income to take care of an entire family.
If you proceeded to a tertiary institution, like a university or polytechnic, your prospects were even better.
Bright young things vied for scholarships that led to university degrees that in turn led to entry into companies where one could be assured of the chance to build a lifelong career aka “jobs for life.”
The civil service was still a highly prestigious career path for the most intelligent and high-performing young people.
You knew that if you worked hard, you would steadily ascend the professional ladder. Over a 40 or so-year career, your income would rise, you could get a company car, official living quarters, health coverage and other perks for yourself and you family. All in all, it would a good life. It was the ultimate showcase of how getting an education pays.
Fast-forward 3 decades later to the turbulent 1980s and the picture was radically different. The best graduates were certainly no longer opting for careers in the civil service anymore. And job stability was fast becoming a thing of the past.
Now, move forward another 4 decades to the 2020s and the world as our parents and grandparents knew it is totally gone, along with many of the hallmarks of success.
A job for life? No!
A safe social net where medical and education costs were taken care of? No way!
An official house? Highly unlikely!
Maybe the biggest change, however is the notion that toiling away silently at your work would lead to promotion. Back in those days, decorum was held high and tooting your own horn was decidedly not. Without drawing any attention to yourself, your work would speak for you. And what volumes it would trumpet on your behalf, telling all and sundry how proficient you were at your work and deserving of advancement. Your superiors would notice your quiet, determined efforts and reward you with a higher job level, more benefits and money.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that many of us who are in our mid 40s and 50s still regard hard, steady work as the route to success and are rather lost in this modern world where meteoric online fame is possible, bolstered by frequent postings of well-crafted videos and aspirational photos. In many cases, the “content” does not even have to be particularly original or intelligent, but rather, persistent and in-your-face.
This type of “putting yourself out there” still feels rather alien to many Generation Xers I know.
My work has been centered around technology for over 20 years and I consider myself a fairly early adopter of social media or web 2.0, as it was known then, starting my first blog in 2005 when many of my peers had no idea what that was.
I started documenting vignettes of my life in words on Ore’s Notes, my blog which I managed for the next 7 years. So perhaps sharing on a public stage has not been totally strange to me. The key difference is I started my blog with the intent to be anonymous. Although named after myself, I figured that there were so many other Ores who lived a life similar to mine in Lagos, Nigeria, that my words would not be linked to me. I felt free to write what I really felt.
Somehow though, people started to figure out that I was the same Ore behind the blog and perhaps that’s when the ease with which I shared started to seize up.
A few years after my last post on Ore’s Notes, I opened my Instagram account, which remains the social media platform on which I am most active. I started sharing again, but without the same ease that my formerly semi-anonymous blog had afforded me.
I would look at people who shared videos of themselves talking about everything and nothing. People who posted pictures of their children and inside their homes. Who shared what seemed to me to be deeply personal information and wonder “Wow! How can they do that?“
But this is a new world. One in which “going live” on Instagram or Facebook on a whim is considered absolutely normal. As we converse with and show ourselves off to the world, we can all be instant stars. This is a world where marketing yourself or your products and services aggressively online is considered the right thing to do (after all if you don’t market yourself, who will do it for you?).
And although social media has been my stomping ground for over a decade, I’ll be honest: I still feel out of place at times. Trying to keep-up with the lightening pace of the posts and put out engaging content can feel daunting and exhausting. And sometimes, I’m tempted to beg off the entire thing. I recognise that many people in their mid-40s and above feel the same way. Selling ourselves and so publicly is still so alien to many of us.
But when I’m tempted to hide under my bed covers and throw away my phone, I recall the incredible opportunities I have had courtesy of my social media presence. I have been invited to give paid keynote addresses, to facilitate interesting conversations, gone on all-expenses paid trips and met so many incredibly accomplished people.
So, if the thought of putting yourself out there makes you cringe, keep the following points in mind:
1. Your Voice is a Gift: I read these words in the deeply insightful book “Collide” by Moses Ida-Micheals just yesterday. And it struck me both for its simplicity and truth. There is no one else on this earth like you, with your particular genetic make-up, your experiences, talents and even foibles.
That means that what you have to say – if you say it honestly and sincerely – is YOUR perspective. Of course, it doesn’t mean that others won’t share similar sentiments, but they will likely not have arrived at their conclusions in the same way as you and express it in the same way as you do.
And when you share your voice with the world, you provide opportunities for others to hear what you have to say, possibly learn from it or connect with your experience in a deeper and more meaningful way.
When I post something and people comment or reach out to me to say “What you said really hit home with me and I realised that I am not alone in this” is pure gold. I realise that my experiences – good and bad – can help others in similar situations.
2. Your Gifts are Meant to be Used: I’m going to the bible for this one. Many of us know about the parable of the talents. The servants who used the talents that had been given to them were given even more along with considerable financial gain. However, the servant who buried his talent had even the little he had taken away from him.
Does that sound familiar?
I am sure it does. Virtually everyone has that thing(s) that we are good at, but we dismiss because it comes to us so easily or perhaps we are too afraid to take the step to make more out of it.
I love to write and in primary school, I write stories copiously and shared them with friends and family. Then I got to an age, where I became too self-conscious to share my writing with any one. With time, I stopped writing all together. Starting my blog gave me an opportunity to write daily. Practice does in indeed make better.
I’m not sure what your talent is, but if your approach is “I want to share my gift with others” or “I want to give myself the room to practice each day so I can get better“, you will probably realise that the act of sharing gave you the opportunity to improve at your craft, become more comfortable “doing” and maybe even brought you to the attention of potential collaborators or supporters.
Social media is one way to hone your talent or share it with the world, but there are still the old-school fora like in-person meet-ups, in your close friend or family circles.
And unlike most things in life, the more you use your talents, the more you realise you have. And think about it: God gave x y z gifts to you, yes YOU (not the person behind you). He picked them out and bestowed them on you specially and then you decide not to use them at all? That’s really sad.
I really like what Simon Sinek says here about sharing your gifts.
So how do you share your voice with the world?
1. I suggest you find whatever platform you are most comfortable with. Don’t go live because that’s what everyone else seems to be doing or because the “experts” say video is the type of content that receives the most engagement.
Start with what you truly feel comfortable with. Maybe that’s writing. Maybe that’s a podcast (loved by attention-shy people the world over). Maybe its through photos (not of you, but of your subject).
2.Find your space and start to share what you feel at ease sharing. In my experience, confidence grows in drips and drops not leaps and bounds. Each post you make makes you a teeny-weeny bit more comfortable and each comment you receive (whether it’s online or offline) helps you realise that your voice serves a purpose that is greater than you. By not focusing on yourself, but rather on the thing you are sharing, you take the pressure off you.
And then one day, when someone says to you “I really love how easily you do xyz. I wish I could do that too.” you will realise just how far you have come.
These pictures show possibly one of my first speaking engagements ever (co-incidentally an International Women’s Day event). After launching W.TEC in 2008, I found myself being invited for panels and conferences as an “expert on gender and technology issues.” As far as I was concerned, I was still learning about this space and not an expert in any way.
However I was persuaded to take on one or two of these engagements as it would help publicise my work with W.TEC. Funding is a major concern for most new nonprofits / mission-driven organisations and so I dipped my toes in.
I’ll be honest. It was a nerve-wracking experience and I’m sure it showed, but you know what? I survived that first one and lived to go for a second speaking engagement. With time, it’s become so much easier.
So many women are terrified about public speaking due to varied fears of not being an expert, not knowing enough, not being a good speaker, not liking attention on them.
As another International Women’s Day and Month rolls around, it’s important that we get more comfortable taking the stage to share our stories and expertise. No matter where you are, you most likely have something to share and there will be people who want to hear what you have to teach.
Are you paralysed at the thought of taking centre stage? Don’t be. It’s a skill you can develop over time.
Share your speaking experiences and fears. Let’s support each other and get more women amplifying their voices.
And while you’re at it, for women in this boat, kindly fill out my survey on what type of support you need: https://forms.gle/gw7z7nqd1eyi4xdf8
When the pandemic was declared last March and many countries went into lockdown, an often repeated piece of advice was: Don’t waste a good crisis.
Stories abounded of people who built million dollar businesses, discovered the cure to Cancer or stumbled on the meaning of life during a recession.
Isaac Newton apparently discovered gravity in 1665 during the Great Plague of London. He too had to work from home and what an earth-moving discovery he made. Within 2 years, he was made a professor.
So it’s natural to reflect on how you spent your pandemic and if you made as good use of it as Sir Newton.
I bet he didn’t have children running underfoot though. And even he did, I’m sure some poor harried woman would have been looking after them.
The point is, while it’s tempting to compare achievements (and social media makes this so easy to do), remember that our realities are all completely different.
Make the best of your circumstances and if they are less than ideal, I pray for the grace to go through it and come out on the other side.
This article in The Economist by Pamela Druckerman on how little she achieved during her lockdown reminds us that we are not alone if we did not achieve all that we set-out to do. 😀 Read it and be ye encouraged.
I think this is a message that I should have heard when I was much younger and trying to figure my way around the world of work.
I was so hung-up about what I should study, what I would be, how to incorporate my interests with my eventual career.
Thank goodness I had an adult tell me to chill. He told me that it, except for a few professions, it didn’t matter much what one did for a first degree. What mattered was the openness to learn and keep learning all through life.
I started off studying Economics for my undergrad degree, not because I loved it but because I was good at it. Then I got a Masters degree in Information Systems, because I was then interested in technology and wanted to understand better how to leverage tech for business and socio-economic development. Then I moved into nonprofits, because I was interested in giving back and despite all odds, my first job after school melded all my interests of gender and technology and helping others together. And somehow I followed my interests at the time and was fortunate to have opportunities appear for me.
Our identities are so entwined with our jobs and we spend most of our waking hours (as adults) working, so it certainly matters where you end-up, but you can always change jobs, go back to school, do something you love on the side that might eventually become your ‘main thing.’ There are so many possibilities.
According to Instagram, it was a year ago today that I posted this.
At the start of 2020, W.TEC was featured in TIME Magazine via a letter written to our alumnae by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web).
It was and is still a huge honour. But what I really reflected on was the big dreams we had after that publication came out.
Then COVID-19 hit, a pandemic was declared and many parts of the world went into lockdown.
We were forced to adjust our plans and expectations. We had to temporarily shelve some of our plans, but broke new ground in others
All this to say that life can throw you curveball and you just have to recalibrate. Your benchmark of excellence may also totally change. And that is life.
I had a year of travel planned and I only went on one trip. I had lots planned at work, but I learnt to celebrate some more modest achievements.
However, I spent the most amount of quality time with my family EVER. Some long buried interests were reawakened. And all in all, as tough a year as it was, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.
How has the pandemic caused you to reassess your goals and priorities?
I just completed my first book of 2021. Well, technically I started it in 2020 and finished it in 2021. So I’m sure how to categorise that. Certainly not a full read. A half-read?
Anyway, it was A Wanted Man by Lee Child, another book in the Jack Reacher series. I fell in love with the series while pregnant with my first child. The books are easy to get into, not usually demanding and very fast-paced. It suited my frame of mind at the time. I started with Killing Floor and I flew through one after the other. Every year since, I would read several, but then I read a few weak books and decided to leave them alone for a while.
2020, as we all know, was a heavy year and I wanted something to escape into and picked up this Jack Reacher story.
It started off so well. So strong. Three people in a car pick up Jack Reacher, who as usual is killing time by going wherever his heart fancies. This time it’s to Virginia to see a lady he had spoken to once or twice. Don’t ask. It doesn’t need to make sense.
What was enjoyable was the high sucking-in factor of the book (that ability of Lee Child’s to grab the reader from the first page for a whirlwind ride and never let go). There was the car journey, the discovery of a murder in Nebraska, the arrival of the FBI agent and subsequent investigations. Cut-back to Reacher in the car with the two men and lone woman. The tension builds nicely and compellingly.
I hung on for the fast and exciting ride trying to figure out what the big mystery was. But as the pieces started to come together and the conspiracy started to unfold, that there is where I started to lose interest. It made no sense to me at all. I couldn’t make head or tail of what was going on. I kept reading anyway, hoping to better understand the evolving plot.
As I speak, I have finished the book and still don’t get it. I raced through the last third of the book just to be done with it (I’m one of those people who hate to drop a book mid-way).
I slowed down for the escape scene at the end, which was gripping (Lee Child does this so well). And then our hero is free and proceeds to explain to the 2 FBI agents with him the why and who dunnit of the entire plot. I’m glad someone figured things out, because there is no way on God’s good earth that I would have. And then they drop Reacher off at practically the same spot he was picked up at the start of the book, so he can be on his merry way.
All in all, it started out with so much promise and ended-up in quicksand. I was happier to finish reading this book than I was reading most of it.
Which are the best Jack Reacher books you’ve read? I need some recommendations so I don’t end up with another snoozer like this. I want to re-capture that early feeling of sinking into the perfect mystery.
I started this year with making my goals as I usually do. Last year for the first time, I attempted S.M.A.R.T goals instead of the typical New Year’s resolutions, which are almost always abandoned by February or March. This time, I included key performance indicators for each goal to help me clearly and objectively assess whether I was achieving each goal or not.
I typed up and printed out my goals on a sheet of paper that I stuck on the wall by my bedside, so that they were one of the first things I saw each morning. The strange thing was after a short while, the list blended so well with all the other items on my bedside – books, Bible, box of tissue, MiFi modem, airbuds – that I no longer saw it.
In June or July, I saw it again and initially struggled to remember what it was. I scanned through and quickly recognised it as my 2020 SMART goals.
And you know what? Even though I had actually forgotten that list was there – indeed I had even forgotten about the existence of the list – I saw that I had made a fairly respectable dent in it.
A similar thing happened the year before when I created a vision board. I stuck-up my lovingly-crafted mosaic of aspirations by my desk. I looked at it each day, until I no longer saw it. By the end of the year though, to my surprise, I had somehow achieved about 50% of the goals represented on it. So obviously, there is a power in thinking through and clarifying to yourself how you want to spend the next year – even if that is all you do.
I am keeping the same goals and vision board for 2021 for the most part, as some very important goals remained un-met.
However, what is different now is that I have lived 9 months through the uncertainty and difficulty of a pandemic. I have seen businesses – including mine – struggle. I have witnessed more loss of life in such a short space of time than I ever have. Many of the departed would have lived much longer and productive lives if not for COVID. The losses were no longer distant like most news stories are. They hit home. They were in our homes. This pandemic has laid waste to thousands of dreams, aspirations and families leaving unfulfilled potential and broken hearts in its wake.
It’s so easy and rather trite to say that the big lesson the pandemic has taught us is the value of life. But it essentially has in the harshest way possible.
Like Oprah says, “What I know for sure is that..”
Life is unpredictable: I always knew that in theory. Now, I know without a shadow of a doubt that the assumptions I make are based on how things were yesterday or last week and there is no guarantee that any of these will hold tomorrow, next week or even later in the day.
So, I hope to live with more flexibility. Make my plans, but assume that things could very easily change at any minute and move accordingly.
Life is to be treasured: A well-worn cliche, but nevertheless true. I have lost count of the number of announcements of deaths that have shocked me to my core this year. Staring at the photo of someone, usually young, in their element and in the prime of their life cut down by COVID or something else, is the worst kind of reminder of our own mortality and how precious our time here is.
Mourning 30-something year olds who crammed their lives with professional or humanitarian achievements was as instructive as seeing the 60-something year olds who never quite found their feet or did those things that they really wanted to do.
In 2021, I will treasure my days as much as I can, keeping my focus on the people and goals that mean the most to me. I don’t want to waste any time on fear or trying to attain perfection. I want to do. I want to create. I want to live.
Focus is Key: It’s tempting not to want to make any plans because, as we already established in #1, life is unpredictable. But in #2, we recognised that life is to be treasured anyway. And because none of us knows how long we have on this earth, we might as well utilise this resource of our life as efficiently and optimally as possible and the one way to do that is FOCUS.
This does not mean living with tunnel-vision, focused only on work or whatever is most important to us. Indeed, life is richer when we immerse ourselves in new, different experiences. But it is important to learn to sift out those people, activities and experiences that do not align with our values and not waste our time on these. I hope that didn’t sound contradictory.
Unlike many people, I don’t think 2020 was a wasted year, because it taught me to value life so much more. It taught me to be bolder and more courageous. It taught me to laugh and play more. It taught me to turn away from my laptop more and really listen to what my children are saying. It taught me to just do the things I want to without waiting for permission or a big flashing YES in the sky. It taught me to value my health and treat my body and mind with more kindness.
So, 2021 I am waiting for you with all the lessons I learnt this year.
When the lockdown started in March, my intentions were fully to read and binge on Netflix. Well, it turned out that work took a new dimension. For everyone, who started working from home, you know how easily the lines between office time and home time blurred even more than mobile devices had already encouraged. Then, working from a house filled with people, especially the little variety, rigorously tested my multi-tasking skills, ability to focus and patience.
“Mummy, B….. beat me!“
“Mummy, I’m hungry!“
“Mummy, let’s make pizza!“
“Mummy, I’m bored!“
Every statement ending with a wail that demanded immediate action.
So it’s really no wonder that books were left unread, Netflix and Amazon Prime and YouTube content left unconsumed for so long.
After many months of trying to do it all, I relented and realised that focus was the key for me. So, I have started culling all the activities that aren’t adding to my goals du jour. I stopped joining every webinar and InstaLive session that looked half-way decent. I started scrutinizing invitations to speak more carefully. Afterall there is just one me and I have this one life.
I signed-up for a second writing course and of course as you write, you read what others are writing. A big part of this particular course is reviewing work by other students. It’s harder than you might imagine. You want to be fair, give feedback that can actually help them improve while being kind.
I know that the feedback that has helped me the most has identified technical errors I made or given very specific suggestions on ways that I can write more clearly. I can always take them or leave them. The least useful ones have been “I loved this so much.“
This particular course in about writing for young readers and so I have been reading more YA and children’s books. You know how sometimes you dismiss picture books for very young children as being easy to write? Ha!!! Well, try writing something simple yet engaging enough for young children whose attention span rivals those of goldfish. You will quickly see what I mean.
So over the last 2 weeks alone, I have read The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami. I am listening to an audio book of Just William by Richmal Crompton. I started reading Chasing Butterflies in the Sunlight, a new release by Morenike Euba Oyenusi. I started paying attention to the illustrations, which somehow I always glossed over. I guess when something is done right, you are less likely to notice it. But now that I am trying to do something similar, I am inspecting every aspect of it.
I read The Snow Dancer by Addie Boswell earlier this year with sublimely beautiful illustrations by Merce Lopez. My goodness! Where do people find such talented artists? Where would I find one?
But back to my accelerated reading habits, as I have enjoyed re-immersing myself in books, less fruitful activities have been cast aside.
I discovered the fast and furious adventures of Jack Reacher by Lee Child a few years ago and usually read at least 3 a year. However, that hasn’t been the case this year, so I pulled out A Wanted Man, which has been sitting on my shelf for about 3 years now. A fun and action-packed tale is a perfect way for me to sail through Christmas.
In general though, the books I have been reading recently have mostly been short and packed. A few days ago, I wolfed down Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in one sitting while at the salon. It’s a tight and delicious reading. And now as a wannabe writer, I wasn’ t just following the plot, I was turning over the words and marveling at how beautifully CNA put them together to form such interesting and evocative prose.
Maybe one day…… I think as I struggle along with my own writing. I will keep up with writing my short stories and blog posts. Maybe it will all add-up to something more significant one day…
Ms. Oreoluwa 