Three years of Ibiene
Year One:
It was new to you -
The amount of people on the buses to and from campus
The kebab and pizza shops across the road from your dorm
The handouts they gave you in classes
The PowerPoint presentations
You weren't even supposed to be admitted to university that year
You were supposed to go on a gap year
Live in Kenya with your father
And reapply for medicine the following year
You had a new Ghanaian friend
The petite one with glasses
Who looked just like you
Friendly, just like you
Laughed easily, just like you
As in college, again, you scrambled to fit in somewhere
Make it on the basketball or netball or football team
Find a group of friends you could hang out with, belong to
And weren't the boys so cute?
The ones who took your number and never called
Who thought you were cute but never said more
And that one who saw you and fell in love but you didn't see him that way
And summer came
And hell happened
And you didn't know who you were at all
Year Two:
You never knew sharing housing with people would be so tasking
All was well till you didn't talk to one of your housemates for nearly a month
The walks and bus rides to and from school were long and lonely
Especially on mornings when it rained and the puddles wet your shoes and jeans
You still don't know William James' Stream of Consciousness properly
Or the specifics of Evolutionary Psychology
Because you were crushing on a boy who had reservations about Christianity
And because you threw yourself into day dreaming as opposed to into your books
By the end of the second semester
You were hanging on a 2:2
And summer came
And hell happened
And you didn't know what you wanted at all
Year Three:
A new leaf
The room you now shared in a flat with three other strangers
Was more comfortable
More pacifying than that big house with lilac walls
You went from classes to the library to your room
And your evenings were filled with pea and ham soup and multiple doses of Monk
That was your haven
That was your happiness
Even when he left you, you barely felt a thing
Because at least you had the silence within your four walls
And the company you needed to make the loneliness dissipate
You found yourself that year
And that is probably when your lonesomeness began
That year you realized
That you could make it on your own
It was new to you -
The amount of people on the buses to and from campus
The kebab and pizza shops across the road from your dorm
The handouts they gave you in classes
The PowerPoint presentations
You weren't even supposed to be admitted to university that year
You were supposed to go on a gap year
Live in Kenya with your father
And reapply for medicine the following year
You had a new Ghanaian friend
The petite one with glasses
Who looked just like you
Friendly, just like you
Laughed easily, just like you
As in college, again, you scrambled to fit in somewhere
Make it on the basketball or netball or football team
Find a group of friends you could hang out with, belong to
And weren't the boys so cute?
The ones who took your number and never called
Who thought you were cute but never said more
And that one who saw you and fell in love but you didn't see him that way
And summer came
And hell happened
And you didn't know who you were at all
Year Two:
You never knew sharing housing with people would be so tasking
All was well till you didn't talk to one of your housemates for nearly a month
The walks and bus rides to and from school were long and lonely
Especially on mornings when it rained and the puddles wet your shoes and jeans
You still don't know William James' Stream of Consciousness properly
Or the specifics of Evolutionary Psychology
Because you were crushing on a boy who had reservations about Christianity
And because you threw yourself into day dreaming as opposed to into your books
By the end of the second semester
You were hanging on a 2:2
And summer came
And hell happened
And you didn't know what you wanted at all
Year Three:
A new leaf
The room you now shared in a flat with three other strangers
Was more comfortable
More pacifying than that big house with lilac walls
You went from classes to the library to your room
And your evenings were filled with pea and ham soup and multiple doses of Monk
That was your haven
That was your happiness
Even when he left you, you barely felt a thing
Because at least you had the silence within your four walls
And the company you needed to make the loneliness dissipate
You found yourself that year
And that is probably when your lonesomeness began
That year you realized
That you could make it on your own
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