Wow, I can't believe it's creeping up to three weeks since I was last on here! So so strange, but I trust that you, my lovelies, understand about the current exam season! It's funny because I've started and stopped writing so many posts to update you guys on anything going on but the posts always felt kind of weird... I guess I just haven't been feeling as talkative lately. Anyways, now that it's exactly 7 days till I see the end of this current exam season and the last 'exam season' of my whole life (See that daddy? No more school fees, ever!), I must say that I'm more than a little excited! Forget the fact that my next exam is sooner than I care to admit, I can practically taste the freedom!
This is going to be a relatively short post on what has gotten me through these particular strenuous times, music! In particular Ariana Grande! How on earth am I only just discovering her? Oh you don't know who she is? Allow me the pleasure of educating you! (can you tell how excited I am? I'm not sure this is normal) Ariana Grande is a singer/actress most famously known for her role on the Disney show Victorious amongst other things but let's skip the history lesson, you can go to her Wiki page for that. This girls voice is di-vine! I don't know how else to describe it really.. I've always been a sucker for the cheesy R&B/Pop songs think Mariah Carey, Britney Spears etc but then those two have long since stopped making truly awesome music so I've had to find compensation in all sorts of other genres, until I found Ariana. Her voice is phenomenal, plus she can hit the "Mariah" note! *sigh* awesomeness.. Actually, I'm just going to stop going on about her and post a couple of videos for you to enjoy!
The first one is my current fave! A cover she did to Justin Bieber's "Die in Your Arms", sadly I've never even heard Bieber's version, I just thought it was her song tbh.
And this one is her first single off her upcoming album Daydreamin' called "The Way"
These two songs have been on repeat since I discovered her over the weekend. What do you guys think? Did you catch the bug too or am i just a weirdo? Let me know, let me know!
Seeing as I couldn't make a whole post about just Ariana Grande I decided to give out honorable mentions to a few other people!
Wale for Love Hate Thing
Ciara for Body Party (Her and Future are SO cute in this video!)
CeCe Winans for No One
and my entire Afrobeats playlist of course! Nothing gets me out of a boredom funk faster than some Wizkid or DRB!
There's so much more to say but I will save it for now, the blog will be back to running full schedule soon whatever that was!, bear with me as I attempt to slay these final exams and to everyone that still in the same boat as me or having to meet some deadline or the other, good luck! God's got us!
So I put this post up on my old blog ages ago, well at the last exam season really and unfortunately it's that time of the year again...
I've been trying to go hard at the books because my goal is still to finish this masters degree with a distinction! (70% average) but today and yesterday haven't been the best days! I mean I hate exam season. I know we all do, but I really really hate it! Hours and hours spent reading material and learning things only for them to not come up in the exam! I know people say “No knowledge lost” but what about the time spent? O ti so nu ni now! (It’s lost now!) It’s so unfortunate that I actually want to be an engineer, I would have dropped out of school and become a stripper, sadly I don’t have the upper body strength for their profession. So here I am, typing away while I really should be studying, who does that? Oh all of you you say? LIARS! You guys are busy hitting the books hard and I’m here, allowing the spirit of procrastination to take over my life, Lord be with me! I need to become more serious about my schoolwork, how else am I meant to get that distinction? **sigh** but seriously though, can school somehow be made more interesting? I mean there are so many other things I’d rather be doing, e.g. reading blogs, updating my blog, listening to gossip, Facebook stalking people, Instagram stalking people, twitter stalking even more people (yes, I know a lot of stalkable people), sleep, stare. I don’t know, anything but studying! Luckily for me after an average of 5-7 hours all these things lose their charm and I think, heck, might as well study… After I have dinner.
When I eventually get down to studying after eliminating the demon of procrastination, a second gargoyle rears it ugly head; distraction! I’ve finally opened up the books, I’ve even read the first few pages then all of a sudden, I read something and my mind wonders down a completely different train of thought, so I pick up the phone and text my best friend the funny thing that just popped into my mind, this leads to an hour long conversation about nothing in particular with me saying “I really should be working” every 10 minutes or so. Ha! It’s ridiculous really! But I feel better because the books are at least open, that’s step one complete. After chatting to my friend and updating her on everything she’s missed over the last hour I finally resume studying. Just that I’ve forgotten what I just read, so back to the beginning I go. Surely you guys can see how this is a vicious cycle? I mean, I get to the line that made my mind wonder the first time and my mind wonders again! Sometimes even down a completely different path, which means I have to relate this NEW information to the bestie! **sigh**
Luckily I’ve found a means of combating this cycle, I have to say it actually works! Well except today where I’m just really allowing the laziness to take over! But it works on a regular day :) Here’s what I try to do:
Eat
The number of times I get up to “find a snack” while I’m trying to study is insane! So I just cut the crap and eat something! Hey! Listen! This is not the time to chow down some pounded yam or other carb heavy food that just makes you sleepy oh! Something small and relatively filling should do the trick. It also helps if you plan your snacks and put them on the table so you don’t have to get up eventually, as long as you don’t gobble them all at once like I would, hehe.
Plan your study time
I recently started this thing after a suggestion from a friend and I’ve found that it really combats the distraction. I get my watch out and place it somewhere visible, then I study in on-off fashion. So basically, I study for 60 minutes straight, then take a break for 15-20 minutes. Study again for another hour, break for another 15 minutes. Obviously this method needs some tweaking depending on what you’re studying, sometimes it’s possible to do 90 minutes straight then 15 minute break, the key for me is to not take too long a break, the whole distraction thing just comes back if I decide to spend 30 minutes on Facebook/Instagram and I lose the flow! 15 minutes is just enough time to pee, reply messages, quickly check Facebook and breathe. Sometimes in the break if the flow is going to good to be broken, I review the work I’ve just done to actually help me remember stuff. I’m working on maybe taking shorter breaks? Maybe.
Don’t Get Overwhelmed
Staring at the mountain of books waiting to be read is not helpful, if you’re anything like me all that does is put you in panic mode and then that makes you unproductive, then you get depressed about how unproductive you’re being and then depression sinks in and you feel like doing no work. If you’re lucky this only lasts hours but sometimes it can last days! I’ve found that making a timetable is really helpful but if I don’t meet the goals I’ve set for myself then I start panicking about falling behind and we all know what panic does… What I’ve been trying to do instead is set mini goals for myself from when I wake up or possibly the night before. This helps me break the work up into bite size pieces and the mini goals for the day are usually more realistic and achievable than the timetable I made two weeks ago! Being overwhelmed causes you to lose focus. Just think baby steps, little drops of water make the mighty sea.
My current to-do list for today and tomorrow. Sincerely hope I finish all those mini-tasks!
Well, after churning out all this advice I believe it’s now time for me to take some of my own advice and get a moving! It’s time to resume studying and stop faffing. Right after dinner. **wink**
Okay I know what this looks like, you think I have once again desserted you and neglected my baby but I promise I haven't! This time I have a legit excuse, I've been out of the country and without wifi for about a week or so; I went to the heart of Ondo Kingdom, Nigeria for my granddads' funeral and though it was generally time of extremely mixed emotions let's focus on the not so sad shall we? My Warrior Angel would have wanted it no other way!
It's been more than a while since I last dressed up in the full Yoruba attire but this past week I must have worn all the different types of aso-oke (top cloth) in Ondo! from the lovely purple and pink in alari, to the subtle gold in sanyan and the deep blue of etu!
Pink, pearls and alari, excuse the messy room in the background, that is what happens when you put six females together AND make them rush to get dressed quickly everyday! This is a typical yoruba traditional outfit, the head piece is called a gele, the top is a buba and the wrap around skirt is called an iro. I'm missing my iborun in this picture which is another piece of cloth, the same as the gele that is wrapped around your waist but you can kind of see it on my Aunt in the background. Trust me when I say there is no rushing this outfit! The gele (head piece) will be tied to perfection!
Gold, corals and sanyan and the massive necklace around my neck is called an 'igbaku'. I think it's only used at funerals if I remember rightly.
My brothers and cousin in sanyan agabadas (the long gown over the trousers), filas (men's hats) and igbakus. Those agbadas are heavy! I never realised how much so until I tried using one as a duvet!
Cute lil cuz in his own mini agbada
The girls in lilac and purple, honeslty I don't even remember what this outfit was for!
Sleeping in church. tut-tut!
After this trip I have a really deep love for aso-oke now! I always hated wearing it before but I think I have been well conditioned to it, I've even gone as far as daydreaming on what my aso-ebi (family cloth) for my wedding will be made out of and what colour it will be! just have to learn to tie my own gele so that poor Aunty Toju doesn't have to tie about 20 every morning the next time the whole family gathers God bless her soul! Once again I'm sorry I left you for so long! Hopefully you see that I haven't just ditched, thanks to all my readers for always coming back and to my favourite anonymous commenter and all the readers in Russia, thank you especially!
P.S: Posting this month might continue to be sparse as I prepare for summer exams but I will try very hard to not leave for too long again! Blogging is a nice study break. :)
