On October the First, 2014, while Nigeria marked 54 Years of Independence, I was somewhere in Osogbo in Nigeria’s South-West when I posted the first article on this blog. “Ibosa – Welcome” was the first of more than 340 articles that I have posted here. In the intervening decade, I have managed this site from different cities in about ten countries, taking my writing with me as I explore life. I have gone from writing on paper to typing everything directly as the thoughts are parsed through my neurons.
Looking back at the ten-year journey, what a ride it has been! It seems I have written on such a diverse set of topics that a colleague once joked whether there was something I had not written about. [Quick Fact: Definitely a lot] Starting the blog was the hardest part having seen people lose opportunities because of things they had said, written or done in the past, even if there was no correlation whatsoever between the cancelled opportunity and whatever a bandwagon decided was raison d’être for a cancellation campaign. In a world with a lot less spine and a lot more vengeance, there is an apparent wisdom in keeping one’s mouth shut. But what the younger me said in 2014, the young me still affirms that I would let the future sort itself out. There would still be Paracetamol to buy in future; no need disturbing my liver today.
As expected, 340+ articles means I have pleased a wide range of people and also pissed off an equally diverse troupe. Ideally, I should be getting a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award for achieving this feat. I have had people reach out to praise something they read and equally had people willing to restructure my big head with a nice two-by-two plank, including one random work colleague who let emotions get over him and resorted to posting a threat as a comment.
But asides the reactions, blogging has been an immense learning experience. I think my writing has debatably improved over time, and thanks to my wife now exercising editorial veto, I have had to rewrite certain parts of some articles to be more emotionally sensitive, and even had to cancel some articles from being posted. Where articles have a somewhat technical slant, I try to ensure that at least one person competent in the applicable field is asked to sense-check whatever I have written to avoid embarrassing my ancestors.
But while I used to do about eight articles a month, I now struggle to do one a month due to gruelling work commitments and having to manage whatever time is left for my family and other extracurricular activities. However, I remain committed to writing for the blog to force me to think of things unrelated to work and continue learning to compose my thoughts, which also has the benefit of making me better at crafting documents at work.
So here I am, ten years later continuing to write about “the world as I see it”. I cannot even see ahead of my nose, so I cannot tell what the next ten years hold—that would be delving into the realm of the Omniscient One. But I know that I will keep evolving; learning, unlearning, relearning, and where inspired, putting down my thoughts for others to read.
Cover image generated using Microsoft’s Copilot (Image Creator)
Jilomes 