I've Moved!!

Hi, beautiful day.

i've finally migrated to wordpress *cue music and fanfare*, its bit easier for me to use. I'll leave this blog up with all the old posts but the new ones will all be on my new blog and i'll move some posts from here to there as well

seems i cant put the link here so you can copy and paste it into your searchbar.

https://aghanaiangirlkaren.wordpress.com/

The time I realized I was not as fit as I thought i was

Ok so first things first (no i'm not the realest *rolls eyes*), I am a fitness freak only in my head. In real life, I only skip so I don’t get fat, plus with my eating habits, the skipping is just a formality.

Ever since I could remember, I liked running around: playing four corners at break time, then playing football with the boys after school, I used to be that sweaty girl.

So fast-forward to high school I was on the basketball team till the coach and I had a slight misunderstanding, no fault of mine, and I got kicked off the team.

Fast forward some more and I’m in University and I have decided to play basketball again so every evening I change, go to the court and put my life in a friends mean hands *insert scary haunted house music*

So the other night, he’s catching rebounds and passing the ball back and I’m getting tired so I begin to slow down (mistake number one) , he doesn't say anything so I get even slower and I just drop to the court, mabr3!

I finally get up (I’m still tired but I hate it when the sweat dries) and all of a sudden, the once direct passes are going to the other side of the court, he’s throwing them far away intentionally, I am forced to run after the balls….its hell.

I’m running back with the balls telling him to slow down but onti kraa, if you won’t run with the balls, you will run after them.

I start doing too known, running and all that but then I begin to feel my body slow down even more, it’s not responding and my head is aching and burning. (it’s a feeling we the non-fit people can relate to)

Finally I give up and just drop. I’m sitting there, in the middle of the court and the first thing that comes into my foolish mind as I look at the ball roll away is:

“Looking at how unfit I am, if I ever marry an athlete, I might get an aneurysm in bed and die, I wonder if it’ll it better be worth it though”

The Time I died

Today, I died.

It hurt so much; I felt my heart get ripped out of my body, saw it get crushed and I felt it, It was not connected to my body in anyway but it hurt so much.

Today, I died.

I felt the air leave my body, I felt my lungs collapse into themselves, it was not supposed to hurt, but it did.

Today, I died.

It went straight into my body, nothing could stop its onslaught, and bone and cartilage were useless against it.

Today, I died.

Because I broke my own rules and did not trust myself. I kept second guessing my instincts and closing my eyes to what was right in front of me.

Today, I died

Changes

2014 was not an easy year for me but I made it through and that’s what is important. It was the year I turned 21, the year I learnt that if I make up my mind to do something, I can do it. The year I realized that deep down, I am unable to conform, the year my heart got broken. But then I’m not here to talk about my year (surprise, surprise)

I have not been as faithful to the blog as I wanted to be mainly because it started to feel too much like work and not something I enjoyed doing.

Personally, sharing my writing is not an easy thing to do. It feels like I’m stripping down to nothing in front of everyone who reads what I write, I’m baring myself to you, showing you what’s in my head and it’s not that easy or comfortable.

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing, I enjoy it. I have bits and pieces of words draped over single thoughts, I have painted so many portraits with words but they may never be put up (a runway that will never be walked, an exhibition that will never be open).

I am changing the face of my blog. I realized that I liked pretty things and I loved writing, I just wasn’t too sure if I could put the two together , I didn’t know if it would come out how I saw it in my head but if I don’t try I will never know; what’s life without challenges.

I hope you guys will continue to support me with this new direction, we’ve made it this far, we can go farther.

(yeah....that's me, you can follow me on Instagram if you want more, always @aghanaiangirl)

The New Black

So the other day I was minding my business, scrolling through my twitter timeline and judging people like we all do when @chiiief sent me a direct message asking me if I could write a piece on “ the new black”, so I was like sure, it sounds interesting. Truth be told I’d seen it around but I never paid much attention to it, haven’t been on twitter in ages and I assumed it was just one of those things. So I started to dig deeper and do some research ( and by research I mean stalking people who had in in their handles and following the links via #thenewblack) I realized how intriguing this topic was, look beyond the fact that it’s a campaign for a beer (some of you dier, even if the cure for Ebola was wrapped in a condom wrapper and you were dying from it you’d not even look at that foil )

Ok so The New Black

I am part of the New Black, I just never knew till it was defined. What is the New Black? (no, its not orange) The new black knows that gender, color, religion or anything outside of actions do not define who a person is. The new black straddles the past and the future, never letting go of the rich heritage we have (seeing it in our speech, style,) and still moving on with the hope of an even brighter future. The new black accepts Kanzo (scorched rice) but won’t say no to sushi, loves both Kantamanto and Truworths, knows that trotro or private transportation will get you where you need to go.

The new black dreams, big dreams, bigger than the continent, larger than life. Dreams of a better Africa built with their own hands, building on the foundation our fathers (and mothers) made. The new black sees the continent as a place to invest in not escape, to come back to ….a place of endless possibilities.

The new black seeks to experience, it asks “why not” the new black perseveres, is strong, open-minded, has a sense of adventure slightly tainted with caution (an eye cannot be replaced ya know) The new black is so much more and like @chiiief said “you can’t bleach it”

where have i been?

Have you ever found yourself on another planet, a cold isolated rock where nothing exists, not even *gasp* the internet? Neither have I. I’ve been right here wondering which of my many writings to put up and posting snippets on my twitter. I am such a perfectionist when it comes to my writing, I want to give out my best, but then we can’t always be perfect so I end up not posting anything. My dear readers, I apologize. Good, bad, I’m putting it up…we can’t always be perfect.

Speaking of perfection, wouldn’t it be awesome if our lives were perfect? If everything fell in place at just the right moment? Funny how we all want that when deep down we know it can never happen. No one is or can be perfect. Perfection is relative. What’s perfect for me may be imperfect for you. Your beauty may be my ashes. We both look at the horizon, I see the setting sun, you see the clouds and someone else sees the vibrant hues, it’s the same thing we are all looking at but we see different things.

Take a moment to enjoy life, make memories, and overwhelm your senses. Do something daring. Step out of your comfort zone into uncharted waters, explore, discover, live.

We were made to thrive not survive. Put your phone away, step out of the house, love those around you, don’t just send emojis, be the emoji. Smile, laugh, cry, hope, love, above all live.

Whoa. Did I get carried away or what.

Anywho, I have exciting news. As you all know, I like pretty things, and I’m a girl (no seriously I am, martians have gender) so I’ll be launching a new lifestyle blog/website. It’s actually a collaboration with my twin *serious face* yes, I have a twin.

It’ll have tutorials (on everything under the sun, if we know it, we’ll teach you, if we don’t we’ll go learn then teach you) product reviews (want to try out something new? We’ll be your guinea pigs), food (because deep down we all love food) the list is endless, we are going to have fun with it, you can call our new baby a beauty blog if that makes you feel better. There will be something for the guys and the girls, the old and the young, the hungry and the thirsty. Our doors are wide open to everyone, human or martian

#oyoeandyarley

the best things in life

We all get to experience the best things in life but we are so busy chasing the finer things we forget to take some time to enjoy and appreciate the best. Don’t know what I mean? Read on.

1) Naps: these are one of the best things you could ever experience. Those naps that are so good you wake up confused with a silly look on your face, you have to blink more than once so your eyes focus, there are streaks on your arms or parts of your face, and if it was really really good, there’s drool, dried saliva tracks (y’all be looking all cute and stuff but you know, deep down in your hearts that this has happened to each and everyone of us before, don’t be ashamed). They cost nothing and they feel so good.

2) Watergasm: The feeling you get after you’ve been thirsty for so long and you finally get some water to drink. Honestly that water turns into some kind of ambrosia once you take that first sip. It feels so good. Just imagine, you’ve had a P.E class or some other kind of sweat inducing activity and your body is begging for water, coke, redbull, vodka, nothing works. Its pure unmixed water your body craves, then finally you get a sachet, or a bottle, or you reach the tap (however you get your water is up to you) and you drink. Dermit!! It feels so amazing. And guess what, that feeling costs nothing.

3) Tiny breezes: have you ever been so hot, that your sweat became some kind of glue that made you closer to your clothes than a blogger and social networks? Yeah, that kind of sweaty and you are in a room, or somewhere the winds is refusing to blow, then finally, out of nowhere a tiny breeze finds its way to you, it tickles the back of your neck or somewhere you never knew you had, yet it’s a tease, it doesn’t fully satisfy but it keeps you in place, it gives you hope that another may come along and even if it takes centuries, you wait. You may try fanning yourself with something else (an exercise book, a hand fan, your clothes, bae’s breath, anything that can produce moving air) but it cannot compare to that sweet sweet, tease of a breeze.

4) Hearing a song on the radio: you may have it on your devices or whatever and you can listen to it any time you want but nothing beats hearing a song on the radio. It stops you in your tracks, you just have to listen, raise your hands and do the dance from the music video, then remember where you are, look around to see if anyone saw you and just walk away like nothing happened.

5) The feeling you get when you see your crush: oh yeah, It’s not a nice feeling yet it’s nice. The anxiety, the hope, the what if. You may not like it then but trust me, once you stop feeling that you miss it.

And here we have the best things, I may have missed some, you cant blame me, I’m just imagining all these feelings and it’s a sensory overload. If you do remember some, drop them in the comment section and let me know.