I don’t even know how to start this but I guess the first sentence will give birth to more sentences. I’m just very grateful for everything so far. Today is the 11th of June which makes it exactly one year since I started posting on this blog. Its been a huge pleasure so far as being a blogger has exposed me to a lot of things and people too. I can only be grateful.
How It All Began;
This blog was created some months before I started posting on it. It was inspired by my friend Fatima who sent me a beautiful article she wrote. I was ‘wow-ed’ and I suggested she opened a blog but she gave some excuses so I promised to write alongside and assist her edit anything she wrote. That was how we created it, but we didn’t name it or post anything. It was just there until one day, I wrote something and showed it to few friends, some of whom advised me to own a blog. I’ve always loved writing before I entered the university, but after I got some encouragement from few friends, I decided to open a blog. Instead of creating a new one, I just did few modifications on the one I created for Fatima and I through the help of my friend Jefferson who did most of the work.
Challenges;
It's not been a smooth journey but it's been a productive one. Even I am still amazed at how we scaled through so far. The greatest challenge has been writing because I'm busy most times doing other things I can't not do. With encouragement from others, inspiration, determination, hardwork and God's strength, we've been able to post consistently for a year. There is no week that goes by without a post on the blog, even sickness got nothing on us *pops collar*. Another challenge has been commenting, some people can comment comfortably while some have challenges doing that so a lot of times, they have to send their comments so I post as anonymous or I just post as myself and write their names beneath, we're working on that too.
How Far We’ve Come;
I like to use the word ‘we’ though the blog has odusolar attached to it which means its supposed to be “my” blog but no; no because I’ve not been in it alone. At the initial stage, I had my friend Francis Fapohunda who acted as a critique for my blog, he was like my boss though not a writer himself. He made me concentrate more on what was important and also be consistent. He used to tell me to choose days in which I would be posting to gain the loyalty and dedication of my readers. It was difficult, very difficult. I couldn’t say I would post on Monday and post on Monday because I might have posted maybe four times the previous week and not have anything else to post. Francis kept emphasizing on it and now, I’ve greatly improved because I’ve been posting on only Mondays and Thursdays consistently. Thank you Francis for everything. Another person who has been part of the blog is Newton Paul who also owns a blog, he provided feedback consistently, all of which have made me a better writer. Another person is Dami aka Westkhid who has been a loyal reader from the start, he even checks regularly to see if there is anything new and chats me up to ask when next I’m posting and all. That’s a lot of motivation for me. Francis Fara, who designed the blog’s logo among other things he helped me achieve and Kennius Boggs have also helped to inspire and improve me greatly, I’m more than grateful to know talented people like you.
Where We're Going;
An expansion plan is being worked on for us to be active on instagram, facebook and other relevant platforms. As we go on with this, we would all get updated We also intend running a wordpress version of this, reason being that, a lot of people find it difficult to comment and even when people do, it disappears after few minutes. Even after checking all relevant angles, the issue persists and I've not heard of such happening on a wordpress account hence the wordpress version though this would be very much active as well, we just want to see the difference. We're also working on making short videos discussing real life issues, this has been in progress since last year as we already have a page call BTW #bytheway on all social network platforms. Very soon, we intend to start posting on them. Watch out!
The Stats;
We have 130 posts so far, 20 of which include adverts and articles written by other amazing people namely; Celestine Atufu who wrote “lies…a necessity”, Amaka Obasi who wrote “my first sexual harassment”, Fatima Okuku who wrote “living in integrity”, Kennius Boggs who wrote “how much” and “the memoirs of an extraordinary UNIBEN student”, Jefferson Ozorh who wrote “the woman of the shades I love”, Isioma Osaigbovo who wrote “prostitution pays”, Ayo Marley who wrote “night of the living junkies”, and Ajibola Abidemi who wrote “seduction”.
Sources Of Inspiration;
God, personal experiences, music, movies, random stuff, general experiences and friends’ experiences. There are times when friends tell me, this and that is happening, I think you should write about it so I say okay, and it might take a while but I always write about it. People like that include Uchechukwu Onyegide, Olanrewaju Banwo, Mosebolatan Salami, Chinagozim Nwaneto among others. Other blogs too inspire me e.g Newton Paul's blog, Doris Aniunoh's blog @dorisaniunoh.blogspot.com, Temi's blog@ dlswithmoi.blogspot.com, Ayo Marleys blog @ hoodkhid.wordpress.com, those are great writers, thank you guys, well done. Recently, I've gotten inspiration from posts on nairaland and even instagram @joroolumofin who deals with relationship issues basically, some of them have inspired me to write, thank youuu, God bless you. Seeing that people read the blog has been a great source of inspiration, some people even go as far as sharing my links with others and even in group chats on other social networks. I can't be more than grateful for this love. Thank You.
Connections;
Blogging has given me the privilege to meet very talented and gifted people, not just writers alone. Some of them include Francis Fara, Newton Paul, Temi DLS, Slim, Damilare Oso, Isioma Osaigbovo, Rahman and a lot other people. Some of my friends who had writing skills but do not own blogs have also given me their attention and written for me at some point too. People like Amaka Obasi, Ajibola Abidemi, Kennius Boggs, Fatima Okuku, and Jefferson Ozorh. Thank you guys, I love you.
Special Thanks;
I would like to acknowledge people who deserve recognition, they include Slim, Temire Emmanuel, Olanrewaju Oso, Damilare Oso, Westkid and a lot other people whose names I don’t know, I love you guys for being here for me. To my family who has given their support by following up and words of encouragement, I say thank you, God bless you. Destiny Emiantor, Amaka Edike, Ifeoma Oluor, Helen Fagbenro, Faith Owoh, Blessing Otaigbe, Chinelo Chukwu, Adedeji Oloba, Chinagozim Nwaneto, colleagues, friends and strong supporters of the blog, thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu, I love you. To my inner circle; Olanrewaju Banwo, Adedajo Ajala, Amaka Obasi, and Wale Enemy, God bless you, I love youuuuu.
How We Want To Say Thank You;
Words are not enough to appreciate everyone who has been a part of me the blog and every other thing in general. So we want to say it in actions, and we intend doing that before the 30th of June. A plan is being worked on which would be communicated to us as soon as it's finalised #anticipate. We hope to achieve greater things next year. I love youuuu. Thank you.
Our Thank You Is Finally Here;
Remember we said before 30th June yeah, so here it is. There's a riddle you need to find the answer to. Two winners would win a thousand naira worth of airtime of any network of their choice. If you have the answer to the riddle, you can either comment on the blog or send a mail to odusolar@gmail.com. It will be treated on a first come, first serve basis. The riddle expires at 11:59pm, 1st of July. Goodluck.
Here's The Riddle,
I am forever eternal...Immortal, yet I never drew breath. The bane of life, sister to time. I am the certainty that resides in your tomorrow. The fate that shrouds your fate. No living man has ever known me and none ever will. What am I?
I love you.
Facebook - Odusola Aanuoluwapo
Instagram - @i_am_phleg
Twitter - @odusolar
BBM - 2BC07AB1
How It All Began;
This blog was created some months before I started posting on it. It was inspired by my friend Fatima who sent me a beautiful article she wrote. I was ‘wow-ed’ and I suggested she opened a blog but she gave some excuses so I promised to write alongside and assist her edit anything she wrote. That was how we created it, but we didn’t name it or post anything. It was just there until one day, I wrote something and showed it to few friends, some of whom advised me to own a blog. I’ve always loved writing before I entered the university, but after I got some encouragement from few friends, I decided to open a blog. Instead of creating a new one, I just did few modifications on the one I created for Fatima and I through the help of my friend Jefferson who did most of the work.
Challenges;
It's not been a smooth journey but it's been a productive one. Even I am still amazed at how we scaled through so far. The greatest challenge has been writing because I'm busy most times doing other things I can't not do. With encouragement from others, inspiration, determination, hardwork and God's strength, we've been able to post consistently for a year. There is no week that goes by without a post on the blog, even sickness got nothing on us *pops collar*. Another challenge has been commenting, some people can comment comfortably while some have challenges doing that so a lot of times, they have to send their comments so I post as anonymous or I just post as myself and write their names beneath, we're working on that too.
How Far We’ve Come;
I like to use the word ‘we’ though the blog has odusolar attached to it which means its supposed to be “my” blog but no; no because I’ve not been in it alone. At the initial stage, I had my friend Francis Fapohunda who acted as a critique for my blog, he was like my boss though not a writer himself. He made me concentrate more on what was important and also be consistent. He used to tell me to choose days in which I would be posting to gain the loyalty and dedication of my readers. It was difficult, very difficult. I couldn’t say I would post on Monday and post on Monday because I might have posted maybe four times the previous week and not have anything else to post. Francis kept emphasizing on it and now, I’ve greatly improved because I’ve been posting on only Mondays and Thursdays consistently. Thank you Francis for everything. Another person who has been part of the blog is Newton Paul who also owns a blog, he provided feedback consistently, all of which have made me a better writer. Another person is Dami aka Westkhid who has been a loyal reader from the start, he even checks regularly to see if there is anything new and chats me up to ask when next I’m posting and all. That’s a lot of motivation for me. Francis Fara, who designed the blog’s logo among other things he helped me achieve and Kennius Boggs have also helped to inspire and improve me greatly, I’m more than grateful to know talented people like you.
Where We're Going;
An expansion plan is being worked on for us to be active on instagram, facebook and other relevant platforms. As we go on with this, we would all get updated We also intend running a wordpress version of this, reason being that, a lot of people find it difficult to comment and even when people do, it disappears after few minutes. Even after checking all relevant angles, the issue persists and I've not heard of such happening on a wordpress account hence the wordpress version though this would be very much active as well, we just want to see the difference. We're also working on making short videos discussing real life issues, this has been in progress since last year as we already have a page call BTW #bytheway on all social network platforms. Very soon, we intend to start posting on them. Watch out!
The Stats;
We have 130 posts so far, 20 of which include adverts and articles written by other amazing people namely; Celestine Atufu who wrote “lies…a necessity”, Amaka Obasi who wrote “my first sexual harassment”, Fatima Okuku who wrote “living in integrity”, Kennius Boggs who wrote “how much” and “the memoirs of an extraordinary UNIBEN student”, Jefferson Ozorh who wrote “the woman of the shades I love”, Isioma Osaigbovo who wrote “prostitution pays”, Ayo Marley who wrote “night of the living junkies”, and Ajibola Abidemi who wrote “seduction”.
Sources Of Inspiration;
God, personal experiences, music, movies, random stuff, general experiences and friends’ experiences. There are times when friends tell me, this and that is happening, I think you should write about it so I say okay, and it might take a while but I always write about it. People like that include Uchechukwu Onyegide, Olanrewaju Banwo, Mosebolatan Salami, Chinagozim Nwaneto among others. Other blogs too inspire me e.g Newton Paul's blog, Doris Aniunoh's blog @dorisaniunoh.blogspot.com, Temi's blog@ dlswithmoi.blogspot.com, Ayo Marleys blog @ hoodkhid.wordpress.com, those are great writers, thank you guys, well done. Recently, I've gotten inspiration from posts on nairaland and even instagram @joroolumofin who deals with relationship issues basically, some of them have inspired me to write, thank youuu, God bless you. Seeing that people read the blog has been a great source of inspiration, some people even go as far as sharing my links with others and even in group chats on other social networks. I can't be more than grateful for this love. Thank You.
Connections;
Blogging has given me the privilege to meet very talented and gifted people, not just writers alone. Some of them include Francis Fara, Newton Paul, Temi DLS, Slim, Damilare Oso, Isioma Osaigbovo, Rahman and a lot other people. Some of my friends who had writing skills but do not own blogs have also given me their attention and written for me at some point too. People like Amaka Obasi, Ajibola Abidemi, Kennius Boggs, Fatima Okuku, and Jefferson Ozorh. Thank you guys, I love you.
Special Thanks;
I would like to acknowledge people who deserve recognition, they include Slim, Temire Emmanuel, Olanrewaju Oso, Damilare Oso, Westkid and a lot other people whose names I don’t know, I love you guys for being here for me. To my family who has given their support by following up and words of encouragement, I say thank you, God bless you. Destiny Emiantor, Amaka Edike, Ifeoma Oluor, Helen Fagbenro, Faith Owoh, Blessing Otaigbe, Chinelo Chukwu, Adedeji Oloba, Chinagozim Nwaneto, colleagues, friends and strong supporters of the blog, thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu, I love you. To my inner circle; Olanrewaju Banwo, Adedajo Ajala, Amaka Obasi, and Wale Enemy, God bless you, I love youuuuu.
Words are not enough to appreciate everyone who has been a part of me the blog and every other thing in general. So we want to say it in actions, and we intend doing that before the 30th of June. A plan is being worked on which would be communicated to us as soon as it's finalised #anticipate. We hope to achieve greater things next year. I love youuuu. Thank you.
Our Thank You Is Finally Here;
Remember we said before 30th June yeah, so here it is. There's a riddle you need to find the answer to. Two winners would win a thousand naira worth of airtime of any network of their choice. If you have the answer to the riddle, you can either comment on the blog or send a mail to odusolar@gmail.com. It will be treated on a first come, first serve basis. The riddle expires at 11:59pm, 1st of July. Goodluck.
Here's The Riddle,
I am forever eternal...Immortal, yet I never drew breath. The bane of life, sister to time. I am the certainty that resides in your tomorrow. The fate that shrouds your fate. No living man has ever known me and none ever will. What am I?
I love you.
Facebook - Odusola Aanuoluwapo
Instagram - @i_am_phleg
Twitter - @odusolar
BBM - 2BC07AB1
Comments