...On Friendship (Wesley College Ibadan)

Picture taken with Nasir Halimat at our 2010 reunion  It's the only picture related to memories of Wesley I have in digital format.

"...You'll find it in the deepest friendships. The kind you'll cherish all your life..."

I am playing my Westlife collection as I drift off to sleep tonight. As the music wafts around my room, I am transported ten years back - to beautiful times in Wesley College Ibadan; when life was simpler and cares were fewer.

I listened to a lot of Westlife growing up. What makes a man. Evergreen. Flying without wings. My love. Soledad. Not the words. World of our own. Uptown girl. Fragile heart. Written in the stars. Mandy. I don't wanna fight no more. Walk away.

It hits me tonight how much influence Westlife had on me. It's ten-plus years, but I still "take moments and make them last forever"; I still "forget what we were fighting for"; and I still notice, compliment, and appreciate "every little thing" my friends do.

This one is for all the great friends I made in Wesley. It's for the great relationships we forged. It's for the fun we had, the joy we shared, the seasons in the sun. It's for the one we lost, who now lives only in our memories. Tonight, across the miles, it's funny how far you all are - but how near you seem to be.

Tonight, I miss you. I hope you all dance.

Happy Birthday - Mosimiloluwa

I once dumped the dirtiest and 'stinkiest' sock I could find in a cup of tea, and smiled wickedly as my victim drank it up minutes after. I was an impish eight year old, and the victim was my sister! When she reads this today, she'll be finding out for the first time.

My mother says Simi could make me cry when we were much younger by threatening to beat my wife - never mind that I neither had a wife nor knew what to do with one. I think my mother exaggerates when she says this - but who knows?

What I know is she would often cry for me when I struggled with severe malaria as a young child, she shared her food with me in Primary School, and she was always incredibly loyal to me - except her own interests were at stake.

It's amazing how much she's grown, how far we've come; from childhood memories to adult dreams... When she's not talking about wanting to go into politics, she's droning on and on about Africa; that from the little girl we once chased around the house before she'd agree to bathe and go to school.

I couldn't have asked for a better sister, and I'm happy to see her grow and come into her own.

Happy Birthday, Mosimiloluwa.