{"id":5300,"date":"2012-12-31T06:45:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T11:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verastic.com\/?p=5300"},"modified":"2012-12-30T22:37:27","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T03:37:27","slug":"lessons-i-learned-in-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/personal\/lessons-i-learned-in-2012.html","title":{"rendered":"Lessons I Learned In 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I cannot believe that it’s been a year since I lost my anonymity. This time last year, I was putting finishing touches on my January 1st post that revealed my face, pictures that I was not crazy about because I hated my hair. How time has gone by. It’s been a very, very fast year, and naturally, \u00a0I have learned a lot of crazy things. Below are just a few in random order:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> \u00a0Making plans is a lot easier than executing them, but executing them is very possible.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> \u00a0A person will only treat you as good or as bad as you let them.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> \u00a0People respect you a lot more when you don’t need them.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> \u00a0Relationships do not have to be half as hard as we make them.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> \u00a0If you don’t like something or someone, change it (or them).<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> \u00a0Being a victim to your situation is a very debilitating illness.<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> \u00a0It’s actually possible for a pastor to be full of shit.<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> \u00a0Our [Nigerian] culture is killing us.<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> \u00a0A lot of us [Nigerians] have the attitude and mentality of a pauper.<\/p>\n

10.<\/strong> \u00a0I am only able to love those who love me.<\/p>\n

11.<\/strong> \u00a0I don’t understand unconditional love.<\/p>\n

12.<\/strong> \u00a0We always have a choice.<\/p>\n

13.<\/strong> \u00a0Family does not mean friend[ship].<\/p>\n

14.<\/strong> \u00a0My\u00a0Christianity\u00a0is in my heart.<\/p>\n

15.<\/strong> \u00a0Sometimes we fear becoming something so much that we end up becoming it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

16.<\/strong> \u00a0My mother is an angel.<\/p>\n

17.<\/strong> \u00a0Igwe has surpassed my expectations of him. And my expectations were very high.<\/p>\n

18.<\/strong> \u00a0God is so, so, so good. And I don’t know why.<\/p>\n

19.<\/strong> \u00a0It is true that girls get excited about nothing — and then they marry it.<\/p>\n

20.<\/strong> \u00a0Had I married any of them<\/em>, my life would have been fucked up.<\/p>\n

21.<\/strong> \u00a0I enjoy cooking. Sometimes. I think.<\/p>\n

22.<\/strong> \u00a0My interests are growing and evolving.<\/p>\n

23.<\/strong> \u00a0Sometimes you outgrow people.<\/p>\n

24.<\/strong> \u00a0My dreams are vast.<\/p>\n

25.<\/strong> And this is an important one: My love for bread has been rekindled (not that it ever died).<\/p>\n

These are just some of the lessons I learned in 2012. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about some of my plans for 2013. I don’t remember if I have ever done that before \u00a0– I mean mention my plans publicly. Later today, Igwe and I will be Downtown Baltimore ushering the New Year in, by God’s grace. We’ll stand outside with fellow Americans and freeze our asses off while we watch fireworks and marvel at their beauty, like we have never seen them before. At midnight, we will do like we did this year: hold hands and pray. Goodbye 2012.<\/p>\n

What lessons have you learned? I’d like to learn from you, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I cannot believe that it’s been a year since I lost my anonymity. This time last year, I was putting finishing touches on my January 1st post that revealed my face, pictures that I was not crazy about because I hated my hair. How time has gone by. It’s been a very, very fast year,Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_14738191_14738191":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[561],"tags":[620,147],"class_list":["post-5300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-personal","tag-lessons","tag-new-year","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLessons I Learned In 2012 - 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