Regular programming.

It's officially harmattan season, the worst season of the year. I really hate it. Dust. Dryness. Inability to breathe. Dry skin. I hate the entire experience.

Anyways, how are you? How has your week been? Did you learn anything new about yourself this week? I learned two things this week (and the week before this one).

1. I worry unnecessarily about things, especially things I can't control at that moment, and it would be nice if I learn to not get worked up about everything, because life will always bring surprises my way.

2. I need to learn to say exactly what I mean and just talk first, you actually never know. So, yes, I learned that I need to learn that… (😅).

This will probably be the shortest newsletter I've ever written, I cancelled some parts of the draft I already had. I wrote it when I was feeling ‘low in spirit’ and reading it now, it's all over the place and I'm not sure I have the patience to go through it again.

First things first though, I just realised that I haven't shared this here yet, especially as you (and everyone else who reads the newsletter) have been recipients of my anxious musings about my exams.

My exams were released last week Friday and I passed all my courses for this semester. My heart was in my throat when I saw that the results had been released, I couldn't check the results. I was shaking.

I had to call one of my friends who agreed to be on the phone with me while I decided if I wanted to check it and talk about how the worst has happened (Everyone say ‘thank you, C’), before then, she already knew how I was feeling concerning the exams and she had been so supportive and encouraging. I'm really grateful for that.

Looking back, it's so funny how I was sure I was going to fail something from this semester and I was close to repeating that I didn't even allow myself to think for a second that I might actually just pass.

It was so shocking and honestly, sometimes I get this thought that maybe there was a mistake, it feels surreal. Too good to be true. It's crazy that I'm feeling like an imposter because of my school results.

Grace in 200 level wouldn't believe that all her anxieties were for nothing and she didn't have to cry so much because of exams, all she had to do was believe in herself a little more (which would have created a ripple effect of pushing herself a little more, having less anxiety attacks, and asking for help when necessary).

I hope I remember these things when it's time to write my 500 level first semester exams. Anyways, I still have an exam from first semester to write, I hope I remember this then too.

Moving away from my exams and results, I've been feeling quite good this week, maybe a little sad here and there, but I'm good generally. I went to the hospital from Tuesday till Thursday.

The unit I was posted to this week was so stressful and whenever I got back from the hospital, it's always like I went to fight a war.

I hope you had a good week, I would love to hear about it, and oh, it's the end of the month, I would love to hear about how your month went.

November was a 5/10 for me, I'm not sure why it's a 5, but I guess it's because of my results and the fact I'm in a good mood right now.

Someone read the newsletter I wrote in December, last year, and asked me how I was going to rate this year on a scale of 1-10, and well, we'll have to wait till December for that. Last year, it was 0.5/10. There might have been a few improvements here and there this year.

Books.

I read 28 books this month. Apparently, about 15 of those books were manga. I just remembered that I haven't read this week's release of Dandadan and I have to correct that immediately.

I couldn't finish The Parlor Wife by Foluso Agbaje, I didn't find the main character interesting, infact, the whole plot just felt dull. Trying to read the book felt like I was punishing myself.

I'm almost done with my reading goal for this year, I hope I'm able to complete it before it's time for the wrap up. Speaking of wrap up, it's almost wrap up season! It's my favourite tradition in the reading community.

There's just something about people talking about the books they read and their favourite books in a year (and month) that makes me excited. Unfortunately, It's also the time where people start judging people for what they read and did not read.

People were able to read 300 books in a year because they just opened the book and read, you should try it. It always grates my nerves when I see posts talking about how people who read so many books in a year aren't actually reading, but they're just skimming through the book because of their reading goal. It's so annoying.

I don't know, I feel like people forget that you also have to be intentional about reading too, just like with every other thing. Intentionality is important (I just remembered this Instagram video I watched this afternoon about intentionality, you should watch it).

My most controversial opinion when it comes to reading is that if it's important to you, you'll make time to open the book and read it. Whether it's just 30 minutes a day or setting a goal to read one book a month and following through with it.

You don't do it, because you don't exactly care. For example, people make time to watch movies because that's what they love and they don't mind spending time on it, no matter how busy they claim to be.

Whenever school is on session and I would post on my status about a book I'm reading or the books I've read in a particular week, my classmates would always ask me how I had the time to do that, and it's always so funny because they can easily spend hours watching episode after episode of a series, but the fact that I'm reading a book is ‘mindblowing’. It's all about priorities at the end of the day.

Now, you might say, “but I don't actually have the time, I'm really busy, I can't read anything”, and I would still say that's not an excuse either. You just don't want to do it and it's totally okay, because at that point, whatever it is you're busy with is really important to you and you can always get back to reading when everything is over. So, it's about choice, priorities, and you, honestly.

Moving on, I decided to work on a new project for my blog. It's called ‘blogmas: bookworm edition'. Before I go into the project, I just need to say what ‘blogmas’ is. It's basically a challenge bloggers do during the Christmas season where they post everyday for a particular period, it could be 10 days, 12 days, 20 days, etc.

Since it's usually at the end of the year, it's mostly reflective and a way to wrap up the year. It's similar to what vloggers do, but theirs is called ‘vlogmas’.

So, for the project, I will be interviewing bookworms about their reading habits, favourite books,favourite author, etc. All the interviews will be posted on the blog, so they get a chance to be featured on the blog.

I will just be interviewing 15 people, so if you want to be a part of it, please fill this link and if you know someone who would love to be a part of it, you can share this with them, I would really appreciate that.

Here are the previous bookworm interviews on the blog, just in case you want to check it out.

Music.

As predicted, Pidgin & English is my top song for this month. I ended up listening to some songs on Bnxn's discography and I feel like I've been short changing myself by not listening to his songs before now, but I'm turning it around already.

This is the end of this week's newsletter. I hope you had an amazing week, and as always, you can send a reply telling me all about it or anything you want to talk about, generally.

Bye x.