Lets wrap 2021

 What a year, full of moments, full of highlights, connected to my roots, new beginnings.

2021

Turned 21 

I started this year differently from any other. I started off in Japan. January 1st I spent time with my friends  until midnight. When it was 00, I went outside, on the balcony and I prayed. I really just surrendered the whole year to God. I prayed for something different, for God's will to triumph over mine. 

Later that day, I went on to prepare lunch for my friends and I and we had a good meal  then a photo shoot. And that marked the beginning of chapter 21. Early January, I was finishing up with my college applications, a lot of essays and financial forms and of course the start of the last semester of IB. 

A few days into January, we had the first case of Covid on campus and it was terrifying. We were quarantined into houses and I can't even count the number of covid tests we took. I think we stayed about 2 months in quarantine until we were finally able to go out. I finished my college applications and I was now waiting on the responses. All the while, I was spending a lot of time with my friends, especially Junita who was also my roommate. We cooked a lot and had great conversations in our room. 

We had a few weeks of online classes before we got back in person. 

I finished all my internal assessments, TOK essay and finally the 4000 word extended essay. 

The very first final exam I had was Spanish oral. I was extremely scared about this exam because I struggled with Spanish and my teacher was convinced I was gonna fail, talking about how intimidated I was that she was gonna be asking me questions for 15 minutes. Anyway, I went through the oral, how I did only my teacher will ever know. But I was so glad I put behind those two years of feeling like I was never going to pass Spanish.  

The next big thing I remember is the poem I recorded, the poem is called I am African. Prior to this, I had never thought of myself as a poet but one day I just sat down and typed out my thoughts. I had heard and read so much about being African and I finally put out my thoughts. 

The poem got a lot of reaction, my teachers sent me private emails, my friends talked to me about it, and up until now I still  receive messages on how good the poem was. Am just glad that people were able to listen to the message. 

Then I had my mock exams which made me so anxious, actually, my class even petitioned  for mock exams to be moved. I did pretty well on my mocks and I became more confident about my finals exams. 

As if final exams were not enough to keep a girl anxious, I started getting college responses. This time around by God's grace, the first response was a yes. I got into Furman university. I was so happy, one of my friends went there so I thought it would be great for me to go. Then came some other responses like YALE lol, your girl applied to YALE (I play too much).  Then a few other acceptances. I didn't hear back from OU. Some time went by, I was nearing the final exams and I needed to get on my books now that all the essays were submitted. I was still going back and forth with Biology IA. For some reason, there was something wrong with my data, then something wrong with my graphs, then something wrong with my citations. It was such a pain honestly. 

I woke up at 4am for some reason I still do not understand and went straight to my emails. I got in and the moment I saw the acceptance offer my heart jumped. At that moment I knew that this was my school. Then final exams came, I was anxious, two weeks prior I studied like never before, My friends had I, we encouraged each other, we supported one another and we just fought through it all. Those 3 weeks were intense walking in and out of the exam rooms, failing to believe whether I was really writing the IB exams or not. But we did it, it was all done.

The smiles of my classmates' faces, the joy in my heart, it was finished, we were done. We then had senior week, great activities lined up and spent time with my classmates knowing we were parting ways soon. Then it was graduation, Definitely an highlight for the year. Let me document it here, Junita bought my graduation dress. Thank you Juni. 

Then it was time to get on that plane and go back home. After a whole two years. Finally touching down the motherland. Exciting moment, definitely a highlight. I spent time with my family, I visited my sisters, met friends, and ate all my favourite food. Spoke my language, I was with my people. I finally saw the mighty Victoria falls. By far the most beautiful thing I have ever set my eyes on. It is indeed a wonder. I also Bungee jumped. If you ask me why I did it, I still say I don't know, I just had a strong urge. It was crazy, so terrifying and yet so fulfilling. After taking a step down that 111m, I felt like I could do anything in this world. I also received my IB results while I was home. I asked Maya to check them for me before I could because my network was bad and I was too scared to check. To my utmost surprise, I did very well, I passed spanish. I still can't believe I passed those exams the way that I did. God's grace was sufficient. 

Then it was time for me to go to school. It was harder this time around. I had  just reconnected with my roots and was back in my place of comfort (Home).  The thought of leaving my family made my stomach sick but I had to. I needed to. So I said goodbye once again. I was glad that my family was able to see me through the airport this time around. And off I went to a place I knew not. Unfamiliar territory. The things we do for dreams.

And this is where my 2021 ends. I was literally in 3 continents, one of which is close to my heart, my motherland.

God's Grace and mercy saw me through this year. I cried, I laughed, I yelled, I sang, I screamed, I mumbled, I fell, I jumped, I won, I lost, I got sick, I healed, I complained, I prayed . One thing remains the same, God's faithfulness carried me through.