Special seventeen

Shoprite palava ◌🏩

           Teach yourself if no one will teach you, be open to reading, learn and learn, it never kills.
                                  ~ Zavi 

    I shoved my book aside, i had read up to six hours in one day.

'You've tried', i complemented myself.

That's when the image of the tall, light skinned well structured guy clouded my imaginations.

I took my bible and a christain book i always had but never read,  wanting to know Gods stance on relationships.

Question young people ask, book two.

Am i ready to date?

Stared at me the moment i checked chapter one and it felt like it has been waiting for me all this while to check it out.

I read it hungry for knowledge and that was what i got.

'If you date with no intention of marriage, you're acting like a child who plays with a new toy and then  discards it'

That illustration got to me for one, who wants to get married now?

Definitely not me nor anyone my age.

Meaning, dating should be done when marriage is the next priority.
 
And when you're sure you have a stable personality, you know what you want and you look beyond the out ward appearance.

''Flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he that committed fornication sineth against his own body'', 1corinth 6:18.

I meditated on the word, i always knew sex before marriage was wrong but what i just realized now is that, delaying getting into a relationship will reduce temptation for premarital sex and will help one direct all focus on studies.

Right there and then i made a resolve to keep myself till marriage.

Of course I'll probably enter into a relationship when am in 300lvl or 400lvl, by then I'll be more matured and it will be a christain based relationship.

I remembered one sunday school teacher who had told us to make a little time to pray for 'our future husband'.

It had seemed funny to me then to pray for someone i don't know but right now, i understood why.

I decided to write a list of all what i want in my 'prince charming' then pray over it whenever am chanced.

As i wrote down every girl's dream quality in a guy. I heard a small voice say 'nobody's perfect, no perfect man'

I ignored it, after all it's on paper and all i have to do is pray about it once in awhile.

I promised myself that anytime any cute guy with dimples on his cheeks asks me out and my resolve is about to relent I'll take my prince charming list, and pray to God to keep him for me.

My eyelids became heavy and i knew sleep was knocking on the door.

I haven't really made up for the sleep i lost during my birthday.

I managed to my room before i slept till oblivion.

*     *     *    *     *     *    *   *

Joanne!

Mum's booming voice was what woke me from my slumber.

Ma am coming, i shouted wondering whatever it was that made mum call my name so loud.

Mum welcome,  i greeted .

How are you, she said obviously trying to control herself.

Fine, i replied slumping on the chair.

I know you didn't wake me to ask me how i am, i told mum who was studying me intently.

Oh sorry i didn't know you were asleep, she says with a sigh then looks up at me.

'Did you go somewhere today?'

No, where would i go to, i stated confused.

Mummy richard said she saw you and a guy coming from shop rite, she blurted out.

I stared at my mum in utter disbelief.

How could i have forgotten the big time gossip woman selling food stuffs by the way i had passed when coming home from where i had gotten my snacks.

I had kept the snacks in the shop rite nylon i took from home.

And the woman assumed the guy whose name i have even forgotten got it for me.

What got me angry now is the fact that mum had believed her,  they weren't even friends.

Na wah for the woman too ooo, she couldn't even wait for tomorrow to tell.

Mu...m,  and you believed, it was just a random guy who walked up to me asking for a number.

I went to buy something with that shop rite nylon, I said pointing at the nylon that was by the dining.

I..um.., I didn't believe, mum stuttered. 'I even shunned her and told her my daughter would never do such, i told her to mind her business'.

Really... mum, you looked like you were about to slap me, i said upset.

I wondered how mum would still think her daughter knows not to have a boyfriend and has never had the word 'sex' before without broaching the topic first.

That's why i always told my friends whenever they're like ''your parents still look like young couples" am like "hell no, they're still stuck in the nineties".

Whenever i and mum talk about relationships, it always seems like 'sex' is a prohibited word.

But she keeps pondering on keep yourself and don't be promiscuous.

If i wanted to be promiscuous, i would have been, since a long time ago when my best friend  bisi had a boyfriend at jss2 and my mates were changing boyfriends like bags.

Of course childish nonsense.

My point is mum didn't enlighten me enough, i enlightened myself.

Joanne I said am sorry, i heard mum say, jolting me from my reverie, she'd probably been talking since.

That's what i love about mum most, she never hesitates to say sorry whenever she knows she's wrong.

Okay mum, i said with a smile. Did i tell you thank you for the perfect birthday.

Yes you did, mum said returning my smile. More than five times already.

Well thank you again, i said.

You're welcome "Omobolanle".

Then we bursted out laughing, how i loved it whenever she called  my yoruba name with her igbo accent.