VANITY CARD #8

Heyy! How do you do?!.....welcome back kind reader, been a rush of intense weeks since the last vanity card. Great paradigm shifting events have happened.

You know, eight (8) is a special number for me and I thought the 8th vanity card should also be.

I was thinking someday and I discovered how when we think, it's sorta like a round table discussion, different micro-individuals contributing their piece to the final stuff that is said or done.

So, I politely asked two (2) of my micro-persons if they could feature in this vanity card, with one interviewing the other. Thankfully, they obliged. :)

These two micro individuals are named Drakin and Damilola. so let's get to it!

Drakin interviews Damilola.

Drakin: Glad to have you here Damilola. First of all, why is "8" a special number for you?

Damilola: Ohh, that? Probably because I was born on the 8th day of the 8th month and I'm superstitious enough to instantly become conscious of that number whenever I do anything important or whenever something important happens to me. You know, its sorta like my lucky number.

Drakin: Superstitious?

Damilola: Not the traditional definition of "superstitious", but yeahh, sure, I used to have some really weird juvenile beliefs. Like "if you treat someone really well and you're faithful and honest with them, they will ultimately and genuinely reciprocate ".

Drakin: So what took that conviction from you?

Damilola: Experience, repeated emphatic experiences and a friend's advice that goes "Damilola, you must learn not to expect that much from people".

Drakin: Deep stuff, sorry o! Finally, I must ask, since you've discovered that - "how people treat you is really a reflection of themselves and not of you", what do we do about all these people?

Damilola: I say we try as much as we can
to spend extra time and thought considering people, their integrity or lack of it, before we do what we do. I mean we are surrounded by and have to interact with them anyway.

Drakin: Thank you for your time Damilola, you've said some things that will be really important going forward.

End of Interview.

My point?....you see a lot of posts or opinions saying "don't care about people, just do you". But I'm telling you,  it is pivotal that you must care about/consider people (and there are different types and quality of them) and still do you.
For what people will remember most about you and subsequently use to treat you is how you made them feel, not how you felt about yourself.

Damilola.

VANITY CARD #7

I've never had to hate someone, never even tried.I've found it easier and much more convenient to efficiently ignore, or silently discard.
But as I have learnt, to many people I know, hate is an emotion they seamlessly grow, an emotion they constantly show and an emotion they are helplessly driven by.
I very well think they hate because they are discontented, they hate because they are threatened, they hate because they are confounded and befuddled, they hate because they lack foresight, they hate because they can't/won't see the bigger picture and they hate because that's the only emotion they have left.
But hate is a foolish emotion, as strong as it can be. It is a needless waste of mental space, a burdensome tug on an otherwise peaceful existence. It is unjustly donating your otherwise gainfully harnessed cerebral prowess to discomforting another.
But more importantly, it is an emotion that is a betrayal of one's self because hate draws the locus of one's life and thoughts away from ones self and makes one a mental slave of another, you are irked by their sight, needlessly infuriated by the happenings of their life. When you're in hate you lose yourself at no reasonable gain.
So ask yourself, must you hate that person? is whatever they did or seem to have done really worth your mental peace?...are you sure by openly hating another you are not openly harming your own self?
I'll end this vanity card by giving an advice people do not take. "Lets not base our lives and acts on emotions but principles, for emotions are fickle and temporary while principles are definitive, discerning and instructive.

-Damilola.

VANITY CARD #6

The legend of the "Hobbies".
See, there was a time my hobby was meeting people, actively meeting people, with(for) all their peculiarities and complications.....well more of their complications.

VANITY CARD #5

Vanity card #5
The thought of death scares me not because of the uncertainty of what's next, in fact I want to (not in any rush whatsoever) see if this heaven and hell they scream about is true. Death scares me because of the non-existence that is left behind. I mean, how does a person who existed seconds ago suddenly slide into irreversible non-existence, where their opinions and inclinations no longer matter to their personal world or even the whole world? This irrelevance, in my opinion, is the greatest consequence of mortal life culminating into a summary demise.
To those left behind, valued presence becomes abstract, yet priceless memories. Reality becomes an unprecedented, imperceptible movie. A movie you don't have the remote control to rewind or the power to rewrite but you just have to sit through.
But I believe it is in time of loss that strength should be sought from above, within and without, strength to accept and come to terms with the new reality, strength to hope and work for a better future and strength to smile again.
In times like this....I will fight for your smile.
-Damilola

VOICE

Silence gripped our soul,

Uneasy but unable to speak.
Whist! Our mind said.
Speak! Our heart said.
Quiet, we lay in a pool of silence
Drowning in words that failed to come out.
A scream broke out suddenly from within;
At last we not only heard ourselves
But the world heard our voice.
No longer was silence going to hold us hostage;
Our voice was going to echo round the world.
The sound of our voice will forever change our generation.

Salome Odafen

300l MBBS

CURSED

I have a problem... I'm not sure you'd understand. It's Summer Time and I can't swim. I can't swim but I love the ocean. We are not taught to swim, instead we are told "When you are ready it will come to you." So I either fall too deep in it or I don't go near it. I used to think that if I learned how not to die from drowning, I might learn how to swim. All I learned is how much I could take in the pain without falling apart. And no matter how much I wanted to die, a part of me just kept struggling to live, and not to leave. I would stay drowning in the ocean, unwanted. Trying to learn how to swim across, unsuccessful. I have always had two alternatives, drown or don't swim.

I have not been into the ocean in recent times. I might never be ready for it. But I can't stay away from it. I need the ocean. So yeah, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I stuck around it. I never went near enough. I said things about it to make others who were about to go in smile. I'm not sure if I meant any of those things. But I'm the only one around the ocean that's not looking to go in. I have to make it look like I don't really care. But by the time all my friends are in the ocean, I get lonely. Very lonely. But I wish I could swim like they can. I'd be deep in by now. Well, I don't need them, or the stupid ocean.

I haven't told you my problem yet.

-Twinless Gemini.

9.2.16

"Bobo!" I heard as one of them hit me twice. The way that word gets thrown around, I can't tell if it's friendly or derogatory. It doesn't matter. I was trying to be asleep. Do you not understand what that implies?! People are just plain stupid. That's why all the other animals hate us. We think we are so special because we can talk. And sometimes that's all we do. See, the real gift is thinking. The gift we never seem to want to use. Unfortunate. I'm texting her. Usually it helps the mood but for now, no luck. Someone just made light of the fact that I look annoyed. I hung him upside down, flayed his skin over a period of 3 days, tossed him in sugar and let ants on him. He begged me to kill him. I didn't. I hear a laugh, he's still here. I need a happier imagination. I also need therapy but my parents don't believe in that. I don't know how I survive them. But I love them and maybe love is surviving people.

I was supposed to write about something. I never got to it. Apparently my mind is at war and all I can tell is that I feel uncomfortable with everything. It's all a mess. I'd rather not be here. I feel like an intelligent baby. Nobody understands me because they won't look past the surface. Typical human nature. I don't have anywhere to be so I'll just stay here. I tried to shut it all out and listen to myself. It turns out the left side of my brain is a noisy hell hole and the right side is a quiet vacuum. I tried again, this time it's classical music and Morgan Freeman's voice listing out all the reasons I should attempt suicide but not kill myself. My roommates are talking about soccer. Arguing. Noise. Food would be great right now. Goodnight.

- Twinless Gemini