Author Archives: thecharalife

Monday Muse

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Suleika Jaouad, writer of the New York Times column Life, Interrupted on the Well blogs, is Prabal Gurung’s first Monday Muse (according to her Facebook page)! Truthfully, she’s such an inspiration to everyone, including me. I started reading her column when it began early last year in the Times, and I truly appreciated the insight she gave on young adults with cancer. Being a “young adult” is already a tricky age, but to compound a grave, life-threatening disease on top of that had to be devastating for her. Yet now she’s basically an ambassador for others with cancer, offering starkly honest thoughts on her experiences to her audience. As someone who wants to go into the pediatric oncology field in the future, I often think of cancer cases in relation to young children. But through her column, I’ve gotten a little glimpse of what it’s like to deal with cancer at such a pivotal age… the age where you feel like your adult life is just beginning, yet you still can’t wait to get home on breaks to give your parents hugs and spend a night in your childhood room. Yeah, I definitely agree with Prabal Guring: Suleika is a wonderful muse to us all.

Also, happy birthday to my little sister! I think that for all who know her would agree with me that she is also a perfect Monday Muse.

Listening

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Writing (for other, non-blogging purposes – mainly, application purposes) always calls for a healthy dose of music for me… the ratio of music to writing when I write is probably 15:1 (if that’s a way to quantify it based on absolutely no data). This is one of the reasons I’ve been listening to so. much. music lately and posting my favorites because it’s another avenue for me to express my head’s thoughts (or my usual dancing mood). So when there’s more videos put up here soon, pay no mind to the randomness.

Thanks to one of my good friends, Nicole, for showing me this cover a few months ago, knowing how much I enjoy JT. I return to it from time to time and basically press repeat until the button’s broken. This is one of those times. I think her voice helps me concentrate on writing (to some extent… forget concentration when Hillsong’s on. That is pure SANGING music).

Also, who knew Tori Kelly was the same age as me. That, along with her hair, is a pretty awesome fact.

Bastille Day

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Happy Bastille Day! This day celebrates July 14, 1789 in which the Bastille prison fell and ended Louis XVI’s monarchy all over France and its territories. This means… fireworks!

I really like this French holiday because it reminds me of my fantastically awesome Paris host family. One of my host brothers was named Bastien, and one of my study abroad friends used to call him “Bastille” as a play on his name. He was the cutest 11-year old I’d ever seen! This year he’ll be entering teenage-hood and I’m floored by how quickly time has passed and by the fact that I still miss them very much. I’ll hopefully drop by to visit them next year when I return.

So in celebration of Bastille Day, I’m sharing one of my latest Paris-related purchases: a coffee table book called Paris in Color! I’ve been wanting it for about a year, so it’s nice to finally add to my bookshelf. I actually didn’t get this book until a few weeks ago, even though I had ordered it at the end of May because I accidentally sent it to my old address at Rice. So it took a month to get to me instead of two days.
Anyway, patience prevailed, and I now have it for reading and reminiscing on rainy days like today.

 

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Opportunity

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A decade ago, on July 4, 2003, I wrote an essay for a “patriotic essay” contest sponsored by Trinity Fest in Dallas. It was about why I loved America – basically, a few paragraphs considering all the opportunities I have been blessed to experience since my parents decided to move here to the U.S. many years ago. I’ve always been grateful for who I am and the things I’ve been blessed to do, but looking back over the past decade after reading the fabulous 10-year follow up article in the Dallas Morning News by Ms. Floyd, it almost baffles me at how far God has allowed my family and I to come. Truly, we’ve accomplished things that I don’t think would be possible had we grown up in Nigeria. Of course, we’re extremely proud to be Nigerian (my family and friends can attest to that!) and I can’t wait to visit soon, but I really believe that each of our talents, from my parents to my little sister’s, have been unimaginably cultivated by the experiences we’ve had by also growing up as proud Texans in the U.S.

Truthfully, I don’t think we can ever adequately thank God for these opportunities and blessings. But for sure, I can say my family and I are really grateful to Him to be here.