MY LOVE STORY

Ibinabo Sekibo

Happy Saturday to you. Well, it’s still a Saturday if your timezone is GMT +1. Remember Ibinabo Sekibo? The host from the interview last week. Here she is with her love story.

Everyone has a story!

I have one, and it was an answer to my prayers. Growing up in a home like mine, you get used to the fact that love doesn’t exist, except the love of God, of course. Yet, it was the major reason I hated Papa, men and everything love. I swore off men at a very tender age; the thing I hated the most was the way they would ogle at you when you walked by, it was too disgusting for me to overlook it; but that strengthened my resolve to never fall in love. I couldn’t afford to give my heart to someone like that.

Papa would come back home reeking of alcohol, after he had drunk himself to the holies of holies. after all he claimed to be a christian. My mother probably learnt early on in marriage not to request anything from him, she would take whatever is left of his salary that he gives to her after drinking and then she would add hers to run the home; if you ask me, I would say she was the breadwinner. That wasn’t all, he would also beat her black and blue whenever the cravings for the alcohol came and he couldn’t have his way.

Talking over dinner was seriously prohibited in our home. We couldn’t even talk on a normal day, all you would hear were whispers, but what would you expect? When respect for the father of the home had turned to fear in the building. I called home and we got so used to not speaking up that no one was bothered about not speaking at home. I had my own friends, the ones I would hang out with and feel myself getting free; when I got back home everyday, I became who my parents knew. So, I wasn’t really bothered about the situation at home.

My breath of fresh air came when I gained admission into the university. Well, I got the opportunity to spread my wings. When I say, ‘spread my wings’, I do not mean going all out and getting wild. Yes, I graced one or two parties with my presence; but the best part is that, it was at one of these parties I met the love of my life. I never believed in love at first sight; in fact, all those stuff really sounded cliché to me, but when our eyes met, I knew I wanted him. He wouldn’t fit into the description of my dream guy as I had a preference for light skinned guys, but this one?__ he was a dark skinned god and I still wanted him.

Well, we hit it off immediately; because the alcohol made me bold I guess, so I approached him. DID YOU HEAR THAT? I approached a guy. As normal with my age grade, we exchanged contact and promised to keep in touch. Well, this girl here wasn’t planning to, because I had books to read and a boy would have been too much of a distraction; contrary to what I really wanted and believed, love had found me and wouldn’t let me go until I had a taste of this sweet drug.

He called me one day, and the next he was calling again, and the day after that, and the day after that; he came over for a visit and before I knew what was happening, I was going to visit him, and staying over became something normal. Imagine how elated I was when he asked me to be his girlfriend; it was like a dream come true for me, I finally met someone I loved, that loved me too and cared for me like I do him. Come on, that’s the dream of every young girl out there. Best part is, he was so romantic, my life felt like a romantic novel to me; he took me out on surprise dates, we exchanged gifts a lot, and we even got to the matching outfits stage.

I was so happy with him, he gave me a reason to love; and even when my insecurities decided to poke their ugly heads, my love made me understand I deserved all the love that he could give.
Just imagine, I never wanted to give love a chance before now, but see how far I got.

Well, I woke up to my usual good morning texts from him this particular morning, getting ready to go to school and then I hear a knock on my door and guess who it is, the love of my life in all his glory, but looking so worried. I asked him what the problem was and it seemed like he couldn’t even word what was bothering him. While I was still trying to convince him to speak to me, he went down on one knee and proposed; I was smiling like a fool, happy about it, until I remembered school and all my dreams.

A 100 level student like myself, I felt I had nothing to do with marriage proposals at the moment; but before I could even make a decision it was taken out of my hand, when I felt a heavy slap on my arm with a far away voice. Wait, Is that my elder sister speaking? Someone was shaking my body vigorously, and then that’s when I heard my elder sister clearly speaking, more like shouting, “Princess, would you wake up? You’ve been smiling like an idiot. Wake up and prepare for school”.

Oh! that was when I realized that my love story was a dream!