My year started with a lot of chaos.
I honestly looked for some other word to use but really and truly that is a summary of my year. It was like a movie filled with moments of abrupt changes, plot twists, harsh moments of learning, and chaos!
Now, before you conclude that this is a sad story, I would like to remind you of a wise quote; “Chaos is a ladder”.
Yes, I get a lot of my quotes from Game of Thrones.
My year might have been chaotic, but the chaos came with opportunities to grow and evolve. January till February was the period of “friend loss”. I was sad because it felt like I would never make new friends. However, not only did I make new friends I learned a lot from the experience.
I learned that my energy should be focused on relationships where I am valued, I learned that I should have boundaries and breaking them will only come back to hurt me, and most importantly I learned that people’s actions say how they feel about you a lot more than their words ever will.
Moving to March and the rest of Q2 another life-changing event kick-started this era. I got a call from Pereware Akpeti informing me that I had 3 days to resume at Heirs Holdings.
This was by far one of the scariest calls I had received this year. My heart stopped for a nano-second and my imposter syndrome crept in to play its key role in dampening my spirits after such amazing news.
The call was life-changing because I had always wanted to work with Mr. Tony Elumelu CFR. It was also chaotic because it meant I had to leave my current job without proper notice, but it was a moment of learning for me because it was the first time, I truly understood the meaning of blocking my imposter syndrome, naysayers, or hindrances and just taking a chance at something scary.
Note, this remains my best decision this year.
By the third quarter of the year, I had gotten a job, I had good friends, and things were going well but boom! plot twist, I had no idea where I was heading or what I truly even wanted from the opportunity given to me at Heirs Holdings. So, my journey to self-discovery began.
I had to retrace my steps to Q1 and even the rest of my childhood to find out who Chinemerem truly is. What spikes her interest, what keeps her passionate, and where she wants to be in a few years. Q3 was a period of learning about me. Telling myself some harsh truths, working on the habits, and equipping myself with the things I needed to take me to where I wanted to be.
Heading to the last quarter of the year I began to feel a sense of contentment and understanding. You can say I became wiser because the entire year made sense finally.
I lost friends because I needed to learn what it meant to have healthy relationships with my peers. I got an abrupt call to switch careers because I needed to learn to finally take that risk. I was inducted into an intense training programme that had so many twists and turns because I needed to discover myself and my life was generally chaotic because I needed to evolve.
I am happy now that I did not give into the chaos and give up. I am happy that I used the chaos of 2022 as a ladder. I say this because the quote from Game of Thrones is a little longer. It says, “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder, many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again — the fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm, or love … illusions. Only the ladder is real, the climb is all there is.”
My life could have gone either way due to the chaos. I could have lost friends or gotten an abrupt induction into a very intense training programme, given up, and never tried again. But I was given the chaos and I turned it into a ladder and focused only on the climb and I am better for it.
