The one about the pandeversary (get it?).

It has been a year since our lives were altered by the pandemic. For me, it was a year on the 27^th March 2021 since we started working from home. I used to really envy my friends who live abroad and had the luxury of working from home, but look at me now, sometimes I find it hard to believe that I am living through these very unexpected times.

Prior to the lockdown, it appears my life must have been on the line with my daily commute, but I did not know. In retrospect, I have no idea how I had been surviving. I would leave home about 5.40am every morning just to avoid driving in traffic then go to the car park to sleep, the same routine applies for the afternoon without the sleep but with more unavoidable traffic. There are several days that traffic starts right from the carpark of the office after work and this was the reality for most residents of Lagos, Nigeria at the time. The pandemic is easily the most horrible thing that has happened to the world in recent times and I really wish it didn’t have to happen for most of us to enjoy being off the grind for a while. I wish it was a much happier circumstance that brought us to this milestone in work life balance or imbalance as the case still remains for some people even while working from home.

Anyhoo, we have been under lock and key for some time now and I miss so many aspects of what my life used to be before. I thought to share some since we are celebrating 1-year anniversary anyway, so here goes.

I miss eating jollof rice almost daily with my friend in the office car park. We target it such that we get there while the jollof is being scooped from the pot. For some reason, this particular jollof doesn’t taste so good once it’s in the cooler so the race to get it from the pot while still on the fire is real. While we eat, we gist about all the people currently frustrating us at work, advice each other, gist about life, do our makeup and basically just sit there enjoying each other’s company, I miss that.

I miss starting my day off with chicken wrap and hot green tea most mornings when the jollof rice made it to the cooler before I could get there. A sizable amount of my salary used to be spent on chicken wrap or suya wrap and later I got initiated to their paninis. It is obvious that food and eating is one of the highlights of my life.

I miss going for owambes, the one where the phase 2 of the party starts like 6pm after the adults have left. This is the part where they start bringing out the boli and fish, chicken and chips, fried yam and sauce, hot small chops, all kinds of cocktails and the DJ goes old school on us and everyone begins to sweat it out on the dance floor. Sigh, good times. You know, another weird thing I miss about owambes is the anxiety that comes with , “will I get food, will I not get food, will sharwama make it to my table , will small chops get to me before it finishes, will I have to tip the servers to be good to our table ” etc. Yea, that unexplainable anxious feeling, kinda miss that.

I miss going to church. I know churches have opened but I am a scaredy cat, so I still join online services. The whole motion of picking what to wear, racing against time, jotting down sermon notes and sometimes dozing off depending on the type of week I had before that Sunday. Then there are usually different programs that add spice to the joy of being in our Father’s presence, don’t let me get started on how lit Thanksgiving services used to be. We dance like dancing is becoming extinct, I really miss that.

Another thing I miss is working from the office. The whole vibe of walking across floors to attend meetings, going out for lunch with colleagues in the office cafeteria when possible, walking ourselves to the car park while gisting, going from desk to desk to find out information on something or even the kind of random gists we have in my office generally. I miss the camaraderie. Sharing corn, agbalumo, boli, doughnut and being able to physically whine to each other about how stressful work is. Oh, I miss the air conditioning in the office. Even though, the temperature was never optimal, it was either too cold or not cold enough. Electricity units are expensive so when working from home, I need to ration my electricity usage ergo AC usage so as not to run broke. This means most of the time, I am working under pressure (Lagos heat) as I said I would do in my CV. That’s ghetto and I don’t like it.

Attending owambes, church, work all mean I got to play dress up and wear makeup most of the time. I really miss that experience of picking what to wear and the lip color that complements it the most. I have become so used to my bareface that I look really weird when I do try to wear makeup these days. I don’t like that because I used to find the routine quite therapeutic.

Making plans to hang out and then getting lowkey excited when those plans get canceled is one of the things that makes me happy. I really missed having the luxury of even planning to go to places I knew I would be too tired to go eventually. And oh, I miss seeing my friends faces occasionally, the once in a year hangouts I have with some friends wasn’t possible and that was not okay.

I miss so many things I didn’t even know I missed till I remember the activity randomly. Human beings are weird because these are things we probably wouldn’t even do when we had the chance but having the CHOICE to be or not to be is what I now know to be the key factor.

So share with me the things you miss about life before the pandemic and how you feel about life generally 1 year down the line. I will love to read your thoughts in the comment section.

PS: I started out writing this piece March 27th but it’s coming out Easter Monday so Happy Easter guys. I hope you all had a restful weekend. I had an amazing time catching up with my friends and family, loved every minute of it.

P. P. S: Shoutout to all the health workers holding it down this past 1 year, your dedication and hard work is appreciated.

Love, light and amala.