Lagos, Here I Come!!

So I am trying to sublet my apartment for about 3 months so I can go home to Nigeria. It's all very nerve racking really, but I am extremely excited to be going home after 10+ years. I hope to have a great time. Take lots of pictures and even try to blog from there. Lagos is incredibly metropolitan city, gorgeous depending on what angle you are looking from and crazy (as above) or hot, crowded and crazy-making in other views (as seen in the picture below).


I can't wait to eat my mother's food again. All the gorgeous food made from simple ingredients, lovingly prepared…What could be better? I think Anthony Bourdain would love it! Maybe I'll post some recipes for curious foodies. Be well!

Things I love: Interior Design

So, here is my first post about some of the things I love in general. Like interior design and just not any kind, but it mostly leans to the Scandinavian style, old meets new, mid-century style. I am such an odd bird amongst my friends because I think they love mostly everything new in their homes and such. I certainly do not begrudge them that, as everybody has their tastes. I just love mid-century furniture/antiques because it suggests a previous life and it makes me think of who sat in an old Saarinen style chair and how much the lady of the house who owned an old sideboard felt about her house when she had it in the 50's. I know it sounds sappy but i love that stuff. I think it breeds life into a home and makes it less stuffy.






So on that note there is a wonderful house tour over on Apartment therapy of Anna's gorgeous NY house. I love her house so much!! I really do aspire to have such an easy going spirit to my current apartment and future home. I never want to live in a place where my friends are afraid to go in a room or touch anything. I love how she makes little vignettes on her tables, sideboards, and fireplace mantles. Anna also has a blog called Door Sixteen. It's so fun and inspirational too. So dear reader, what inspires you in home interiors?

Images courtesy of Apartment therapy and Door Sixteen

How to Keep on Going…

So since I lost my job I am trying to find another one asap. I am looking on Craigslist, newspapers, Monster and Careerbuilder and I have signed up to talk to a recruiter for creatives next week. I have also decided that I want to try to break into the Copywriter aspect of the advertising field. I am sure that I will have to start from the bottom and that is entirely fine, seeing as I am not long out of school anyway. I hope to write some spec radio scripts and maybe do some more spec ads for my book. I have a lot of examples of my copywriting in my book already, and I have always had great feedback from professors about my writing. Even from some people who interviewed me when I was looking for my first job. Maybe that should have been a sign huh?

The truth is that, even in school I have always enjoyed the research and writing aspect of my assignments more that anything else. And I plan to do the work to be better at it. I hope to sign up for creative writing classes, and look at well written ads and reading more. If I had the money I would go to one those portfolio schools like Creative Circus in Atlanta. People who go to these schools come out of them with shiny and perfectly art directed books to showcase their work. Can you imagine having to compete with these people when you just managed to pay your way through a 4 yr school to get a BFA in Communication Design or whatever? They get to spend an extra 2 years polishing everything to point where you even wonder if they wrote or art directed this themselves, or was it spit out by some Graphis, Comm Art magazine and One Show vetted machine!

Maybe I'm just bitter, but God has already given me my second challenge after school in the form of the loss of my job. It's up to me to figure out how to keep on going. Dear reader, I hope you find the strength to keep on going in the face of your challenges too.

Being Bukola. Bravely…

This is my first blog and with it I am hoping to share my thoughts on life as an immigrant from Nigeria, aspects of design from Texas, the U.S., Nigeria and other parts of the world, food, and life in general. I hope people will learn a lot about my culture as I will learn about theirs. I hope to start lively and respectful conversations, make new friends and enrich my views of lots of things.

However I am starting my first post on a somber note because I am going through such a difficult time in my life right now. Of course it can seem self indulgent to say that you seem to be having trouble "finding yourself", but I am not so much doing that hoping to find a way to bravely be myself.

So here's the thing… I just got fired from a job. Most people have experienced this at some point or another but the main reason I think I was fired apart from their cited reason of not being fast enough in Quark is that I didn't fit into their crass-joke loving, jokes-at-other's-expense pretentious environment. I am from a much more refined culture than that. It is hard for most people to believe this since I am Nigerian but we are not all internet scammers. I live a law abiding, creative life and I am by no means a prude but I am reserved by nature and easy going. The more I have lived in this country, the more i wonder if I have to change my essential person to just to fit into the fast lane life here. Everyone has something smart alecky to say and mostly of the time none of it smart.

So I have decided that I will not change myself for anyone. Will try to abide by acceptable societal norms in my adopted country? Of course I will do my best. However I refuse to let anyone make me sad to be me. I refuse to doubt myself anymore. I refuse to fake a laugh just to fit in. I refuse to quell the voices of my ancestors that live through me. I come from proud people. A long line of weavers, potters, tailors, storytellers and musicians. People who have lived by the strength of their hands and sweat of their brow. I will live through all that this country throws at me. Through all the bouts of homesickness, all the stupid questions from ignorant strangers (my favorite: "How come you speak such good English?", and all the days when things may not go entirely my way. I want to me and hope that I find someone to love me for me and friends who love me because I am me. That in this country of strangers, I shall insist on being Bukola. Bravely…