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WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

As the final hours of the year slide quietly away, it is only human to look back, tracing the paths of our days, sifting through moments that have shaped us. With the twilight of 2025 upon us, will you gather at a humble or grand table, surrounded by laughter, silence, or absence? Perhaps you have already counted your blessings—each one a dim light in the dark. Or maybe your mind is busy weaving hopeful blueprints for the dawn of 2026. Just the other day, I watched the children in CoComelon sing their gratitude for life’s simplest gifts—things we often overlook, absorbed as we are in our hurried routines. How easily we forget that wonder. If we slow down, just for a little time, we all have so many things to be grateful for. Even the most ordinary blessings are worth our quiet thanks. In this spirit of reminiscence, my heart swells with gratitude for more than I can name, but here are a few gifts that shine especially bright: Sanity Good health A job/craft The gift of memor...
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Reputably Drenched!


It was going to be a
rainy day in June. Chioma's interview had been slated for 9am as stated in the text message she had received the previous day. She had applied for the position of a Customer Service Officer online, in a Reputable Globally Known Company. With raised hopes, official killer outfit, rehearsed poise, and the Lord's Prayer keeping her almost calm throughout the bumpy drive, Chioma headed for the interview. After following the directions given to her, she still couldn't locate the company; she refused to, even though it stared her in the face like an angry mob. It was a kiosk-like room opposite the street's waste centre. After much consideration, she decided to go in. She was there already and had nothing else to lose but time.
"Good morning. May I ask if this is T&G Solutions?"
She was dead deep inside now when the scrawny looking receptionist answered "yes" to her question, and was led into a dingy space demarcated from the reception area by a slim curtain.
"Welcome to T&G Solutions. Please sit. May I see your CV...? Ok, impressive but are you sure you can do this job? Your duty is to assist me in the selling of our product..."

Chioma had ended the interview with the expression "God forbid!" She watched it on the comedy TV series The Johnsons but she was never going to be a T&G Bitters seller. She was more bitter now than the product itself. "They just had to lie! With such a ghen ghen website filled with big big grammar, all na wayo." She replaced her previous prayers with curses as she left the room; thunder from the gym, Sango's fire and God's punishment on T&G Solutions, whatever that meant. Chioma could not take the last bus to her street for no conductor was sympathetic enough to accept her hideous hundred naira note. She walked home in a drenched state, accepting that it really never rained but poured.

A SHARED EXPERIENCE  

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