Slacker

Yet again it is one of those days when you randomly look about on the internet for interesting things to do and read about and you come across these people who are doing things with their lives and you may be a junior in college with a great financial aid package and so many blessings but still feel like you are a "do-nothing slacker"!!!!!

Gracious and all these people, doings things and getting ahead are ALWAYS, younger than you.
And you look around and ask, what kkrraaaaaaa am I doing with my life??

Oh my psych prof actually used "WTF" in explaining something in class. Haha. Must be another of those things about growing up, the professors know and have come to terms with you've been there and said that.

Ironic how I feel as though my college houses some of the most IMMATURE people ever. Argh. And I thought this was a thing of high school and I was moving forward. Boy was I WRONG!!!
Sigh.
Ah well.

FALL BREAK!!! …finally.

Wedded Bliss

So this all started about a year ago…
I was at work joyfully being aimless (yes, my boss knows, hehe) when this woman (…hmmm another point. ok maybe more than a year ago) comes up to me and says she would need to have her username changed because she had gotten married over the summer. And considering her request that meant she was at most a college senior.
I FREAKED OUT! (Well after I had directed her to the appropriate personnel of course)

It had not occurred to me till right then and there that I was growing up…fast.
I remember the days when whenever I heard that someone was getting married it was one of my parents' friends or some older person. But now, it was the people around me, people my age who were getting married.
And suddenly everyone was getting married, it was as though my eyes-are-closed-to-all-things-marriage-related bubble burst. People my age who I knew directly or through others were making that life long commitment to be with someone the rest of their lives.
THAT'S A HUGE-NORMOUS COMMITMENT.
My roommates can attest to the shock I was in for the following week.

And from that point I started noticing all sorts of other things. My to-do lists did not only include deadlines for getting various class projects done but also:
going to the supermarket to get things I needed,
making sure that my bank account would allow me to get those things,
would I have time to make something to eat and still get these things done,
being roped into various projects that are totally nonacademic,
paying big bills every month
GARGANTUAN RESPONSIBILITIES
and the list goes on.

And there were other more interesting things like tall glasses of hot chocolates that I noticed and had always and will always notice but… it hit just how much I noticed them and how I was not alone in noticing and going mmmmm with eyes closed and big smiles. (Lardy, that night was a shocker. lol) and how this place that I am in has a big lack of them. grr.

But anyways, when did this all happen???
Where did the times I was content with a book and cuddling Benjie in bed go?
Where did the times when I did not worry about bills and when I was getting paid go?
Where did the times when 24 hrs in the day was MORE than enough go to class, eat, sleep, get homework done and still have time over to be aimless and bug my mother (who was 6 feet and not 6092 miles away) go?

ARGH!!!!
And coming back to that other point, did you notice when people started calling you "woman" (or "man")?? I didn't really, when suddenly it was obviously only my parents would call me girl (or some bug-eyed, frog-tongued weirdo on university avenue… forgive me). It was either lady or woman, never girl. And all around me my friends gladly claimed the title. and my roommate would always mock-scold me starting with, "Look here woman!"

Anyways, what got me thinking about all this (other than the bill that I know is waiting for me) at work last week I found out one of my co-workers had gotten engaged last year (forgive me for only just noticing the ring eh) and then the entire office launched into a discussion on financial aid and how getting married in college screws it all up and something something jazz jazz.
Knowing me it stuck in my head but… and here comes the best part.
That night I dreamt I had gotten married. Surprise surprise. But the funny thing was it actually was surprising because in my dream I remember looking down at my ring and I was happy… when I say happy, I mean HAPPY. It wasn't the jumping about, throwing your air and dancing in circles excitedly with your closest girlfriends but the kinda happy that I guess if I were in a movie someone would go "You are glowing."

…Now as to who the guy I got married to was…

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Let's all wait patiently to find out k! :)

XOXO, K.D.

I AM My Hair.

WOOOO!!! I just had my hair did!! And its fly!! (No, literally, you should see the Minnesota ice air blowing it into my face and blinding me. Silly thing. ;) )
A couple hours ago I couldn't even get my big toothed afro comb through the thing and now I can wrap it even!!! (Can you tell how excited about it I am??? :D)

So anyways, there is this thing going on in my school where girls left, right, center, above and below (trust we scots to go there too) are cutting their hair. And I don't mean the short bob like Mandy Moore oooo, I mean short like Solange! (One even has a Cassie. She might have changed her mind half way? Idk) Their excuse: "My hair is too straight!"
To think the ones whom Africans looked to and began to perm their hair are actually sick of it now and want curly hair!!! We humans are NEVER satisfied with what we have, are we? ARGH!

My hair is permed, but Lord knows this thing is only "straight" for the first 2 weeks after a perm and then its back to the frizz. And I'm looking on as head after head is shaved thinking nnooooo and I realise just how much I love my hair and how like it I can be.
Before my hair was permed I never did it myself. I couldn't. It was long and thick with tight curls that created knots like they were holding on to each other for dear life! I remember my mother would ran a comb which started with 14 teeth through my hair and it'd come back with 10 because those bonds were that tight. On one hand, we both were stubborn without give, on the other we linked strands/hands and refused to let go. I look at my life and the close friends I have to whom I'm holding on to like my curly strands would hold on to each other.

Then I got a perm. Probably because people who had to deal with doing my hair couldn't anymore. I know I couldn't (When I was left to wash my own hair I had to do it in sections…funny). We are both now changed, newly formed in new ways and trying new things.
But most of all, we do not forget our roots. They spring back up, thick, curly and AFRICAN! Intertwined to link strands yet again. Yes, I am mixed and my skin pays some homage to my European side but we are talking hair and I was born and raised and still grow African.

You can take the girl and her hair outta Africa but not the African outta the girl OR her hair!!

As much as I would llooovveee to my full head of knotted hair back, I know I can't shave my head. eish!! There is a reason hair is there to cover the head. haha. Besides I like the fact I can comb my own hair now (sometimes). ;)

NOTE: I repeatedly said Africa because this kpenkpeshi hair is not only in Ghana. But I would like to say here: I'M A PROUD BLACK STAR (with cream) OF GHANA!!! WWOOOOO!!!!

Oh, Happy Independence Day Naija! :)