I can remember vividly being a JJC and very fresh off the plane, this I can proudly and LEGITIMATELY! say.
Having left the Motherland so suddenly with no warnings, I came home summer of finishing SS1,( for those in the UK I suppose that would be YR.11), beaming with excitement for the next year of secondary school,SS2, looking forward to the time of punishing all those juniors and have them fetching my bucket loads of water to store for water strike), however those dreams came to a sudden halt!. What was this I was hearing, one faithful night, I remembered being summoned to my mothers room and being told
"WE ARE RELOCATING"
OK!, to where was the next question in mind, UK she said....,feeling rushed with excitement I didn't even bother to ask questions, the excitement in the presence of confusion was too much and had overwhelmed me to the point that asking why we were relocating completely went over my head, besides I was young and couldn't care less, I WAS MOVING COUNTRIES!!!!
It all happened so fast,weeks passed, bags packed, and I was ready to be on my merry way to the United Kingdom, EeeK!.Although I will miss home and my friends, i was ready to come to London, the very same one I always used to sing about, I would finally see the London Bridge, meet the Queen( in my dreams) and hopefully meet that cat that was always sang about in the nursery rhyme!.... lol. The trip to the airport I vaguely remember, second time in my life I would be on a plane and not just on an inbound flight, but INTERNATIONAL!, checked in and boarded,and not even having the time to say goodbye properly to the friends I called family,shout out DON family and the best-friend Whoop Whoop!!!. Well the best-friend knew only the day before I was to fly out, and only because I was to see her the day I was flying out, explanations as to why our rendezvous would not be happening had to be explained. No proper goodbyes were said so it might as well be that there were no goodbyes, wailing and crying over the phone she was ..... I'll miss you, she said, and in all the ways I could comfort her I did "Don't cry!, I'll come back!, I'll miss you too, I replied, Love you. Bye!.
Fast forward, 6 hours of flying later, I had touched down in London Heathrow Airport,slightly disappointed that the ground was not paved with gold(I joke!, but the way they paint London back home it'll have you thinking it's a mini HEAVEN). Getting down from the plane and into the airport, bags being picked up from Baggage claim and straight through immigration, our passports were kissed with the seal of approval
all so smoothly done and ready to embark on our new journey, new country, new experiences, all that good stuff and none of that UK border Force shenanigans, now we can fully say we were in LONDON!. Driving to where I will now call my HOME, I am filled with excitement and after hours of driving, we finally arrive at HOME in East ham!. I'm not joking the first time I saw my room I was rather bemused, Why is it so small I asked my mum, she replied: that's how all the rooms are in London, What?!!!!!! It's tiny( well compared to my Abuja Room) like are the people so small? Why are they being such great misers of per sq meter,it's not even like the land is not there!, all the land they have for recreational purposes that all these youths are using to do graffiti up and down *sigh*, anyway it's London and it's like that everywhere, even down to their roads, hence why their cars are so tiny.The SMART car, was a shocker for me, i call it the stingy-coco car, only two seats fa!.
Least I forget to mention, we came in Summer of '08, but it wasn't feeling like summer, at least not compared to Abuja's blazing sun ( one which you could literally fry an egg under) it was absolutely FREEZING!, but yet I see people as I walk with mum and my sister to the shops in tank tops, shorts, mini skirts and all that bare skin, whereas me I was decked up to the Nines in my winter coat and boots( you could really tell I was a JJC, with the cold sipping through my lips and my teeth grinding against each other in shivers.Living in East ham was like living at Balogun Market, very busy day and night(I lived on the high street, just above the post office) and could hardly walk comfortably as the people in the post office will always complain of the stampings, so we would literally have to thread lightly, we did not live there for very long Thank the Lord!, soon we moved to our amazing self contained three bedroom house in the suburbs of Essex, very quiet and calm with beautiful scenery and everything at arms reach, it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!.
Church was the first place I made my first friends, everyone was so welcoming and accommodating, looking from the outside you would think we had known each other forever, the love they showed us, it was unfathomable. We gelled like peanut butter and jelly. I was asked "Do you miss home? and of course the answer was YES! ( ask me that now and that answer wouldn't be as straightforward).
Starting school was another new experience, new uniform, the blazer and the skirt (Goodbye to pinafore or skirt, blouse and waistcoat). I was feeling myself on my first day, i won't deny, looking sharp. You could tell I was a new student, as I was not a conversation starter, so I would only speak to those that made the effort to make conversation with me. I made one very good friend- Cee cee , we did everything together and went everywhere together. After school, we would go to the shopping mall, gallivanting up and down, window shopping. She was there till the end of high school and then things changed, we grew apart into our different circles. I was going to college and she beauty school,we lost touch.
Beginning of college, starting all over again, making friends, talking to new people. I was dreading it. First day in and as per usual kept myself to myself, sitting on the grass reading my book, when from the corner of my eye, I see this slim figure, speaking with
a soft high pitched voice 'Hello! Are you new? do you know anyone here?, My name is Tia, what's yours?,was I just about to make a new friend without having to make the first move of striking up a conversation, I like this!, Yes I'm new and No I don't know anyone, I replied, standing up to face her. Not only was she my new friend but she was also on my course, all the better, I was not alone after all. Tia and I met up in class but she was sitting with another girl( A girl that attended my high school and disliked me for one reason, I was the newer student!, can you imagine this?!), back to class mode, I see Tia asking me to come sit with her and this other girl, lets call her Valerie. Soon, before you know it Tia, I and Valerie were tight buddies in our class, always doing our work together and getting up to mischief.
Over the course of two years, my circle of friends grew bigger, our jamming sessions in the canteen playing Blackjack and Slapsie's during our free periods and our many trips to the chicken and chip shop during our lunch breaks.Two years had passed just like that, with all our up's and downs, birthday celebrations, fights and fallouts, college was coming to an end and we were about to be launched like missiles from a disposable launcher into the real world. Result day is here and everyone is coming in to see if it has all been worth it, these past two years of endless camping in the library, revising and cramming hard for exams, people's fates were about to be decided by a piece of paper. All thanks to God, everyone made it! we were about to become proper adults, making our own life decisions.
Present day, we are all grown up, in university/work and still in touch( well with those that bother to make the effort), meeting up for updates on what everyone is doing.
I must say my college and the friends I made, was one of my best years, what I would give just to go back.... they are some of the most crazy, funny and interesting people I ever met and I wouldn't trade them or our experiences for anything in the world.
P.S: No real names were used in this piece.
XOXO
Mena
