2016. Heichi

(This read — and honestly any other one — would be nicer if you had Tycho’s Awake playing.)

31–12–2016.

I’ve been looking forward to today, because it’s the day I get to pretend I’m a good enough writer and that people care enough about how my year went to read this shit.

When I think about the last 365 days with me at it’s nexus, there’s a certain feeling or theme that comes to mind…it feels like contrast, like juxtaposition, like how regular sunlight seems brighter when you’ve spent a couple of hours in a dark room.

I started zoning in on this “feeling” anytime I think about the relationship I’ve been in for the last third of the year. And whenever I try to articulate what I’m “feeling”, it almost seems like I’m saying that you can’t really appreciate something unless you’ve had something worse. But I assure you (or me) that it’s not the case; I’m fully aware that you don’t need to be in a dark cold room for months to enjoy the summer, or that you don’t need to be poor to understand the value of money.

But my word, when you’ve been in the kind of relationship I was in last year, and then someone comes along; someone who just cares for no apparent reason, it feels fucking good. So good it’s unbelievable, that you sometimes inadvertently shield yourself from it. I genuinely didn’t think ONE person could improve my life in so many way…it’s just so many ways; I’m already a better developer, a better teacher, a better saver etc.

And it’s not just the ways she makes me better, it’s the ways we’ve managed to create a truly happy, truly symbiotic co-existence that is not influenced in any way whatsoever by the outside world.

It’s amazing.

Because of this, I start feeling this “juxtaposition” whenever I think about the other aspects of the year, even when it does not quite fit as perfectly as the above.

First example that comes to mind is related to my exponential increase in spending power in compared to last year. There are habits I simply couldn’t afford; some relative pragmatic ones while others are quite vanity driven. Well, now I take a lot of pleasure in indulging because of the clear difference in what I used to be able to do. It makes me pretty much salivate at the thought of getting the gig I’ve been working on getting the past few weeks…I’ll sha know my fate by next week.

Another example that comes to mind is just how differently I see my friends that have taken their craft seriously this year.

Doyin hadn’t done ANY serious art EVER and now his work is featuring on Huffington fucking Post.

Mumuni has uh “changed” and is seriously learning Ruby on Rails. Busola can actually do HTML & CSS now, and his photography isn’t suffering, it’s getting better.

Tade (my amazing, amazing brother) has published his first mobile game and he’s now a solid ass Virtual Reality Developer.

Tolu (Tade’s lovely, lovely sister) is now a $$$$$ freelance writer.

Even I have leveled up, it feels like I knew nothing last year. I’m doing a Machine Learning Nanodegree and I have two programming blogs with one being focused on a framework that I was completely new to.

Despite the huge net positive changes in my life, it feels like I’m poised for an even brighter 2017. For one, I can’t wait to move to that new swaggy apartment in February.

I will also finally go back to Uni to finish it all by April; for the parents, they’ve been there for me all my life and this is what they want.

(This clearly didn’t get published on the 31st of December because I was having the best drunk-est NYE with my friends, siblings and LOML)

Konnichiwa, 2017.