To Succeed in Life.

“To laugh often and much; 

to win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics

and to endure the betrayal of false friends. 

To appreciate beauty; 

to find the best in others; 

to leave the world a bit better 

whether by a healthy child, 

a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

to know that even one life has breathed easier 

because you have lived. 

Then, you have succeeded in life.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson.



Faith Without Works is Dead.

The sermon for today is simple: There is a time for prayer and there is a time for work. Even the Holy Bible says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). Faith without works is a dead faith because the lack of works reveals an unchanged life or a spiritually dead heart. Faith can only be demonstrated in a transformed life.

I Got a Ph.D.! How I feel About Defending my Ph.D. Dissertation by Dr. Ifeoluwa Olawole.

This year has been a LOT. A whole LOT for so many reasons. But, I can also say this year 2020 is the year I completed the most difficult task of my life. Exactly one week ago, I defended my dissertation and became a Doctor! 

I wrote on Instagram and Facebook that I was speechless. And I think I still am. I don't know what to say because the past five years have been a combination of torture, anxiety, anger, hard-work, resilience, grit, and extreme grace. Let's recount a little of what it took to get here: a dissertation of exactly 245 pages; a two-hour defense of said dissertation; a harrowing (and soul crushing) proposal defense a year ago; two brutal comprehensive exams two years ago; an oral exam two years ago; a qualifier defense two or three years ago (everything is a blur at the moment); tons of classes. But none of that matters now. What matters is that I PhinishedD. I have a freaking Ph.D. I said on all my social media that my amazing family was there for me so this degree is for all us. I meant it. 

The day I defended, I spoke with a lot of people over the phone. My family, my friends, a lot of people called (or messaged) congratulating me. One conversation stuck. It was with my aunty; my dad's older sister. She mentioned that my grandmother must be rejoicing in heaven that day. See, my grandmother had no education as both my dad and aunty reminded me. Not great grandmother, not some  far fetched ancestor, but my father's mother. She didn't get an education not because she wasn't brilliant but because her own parents could not afford to give her an education. It wasn't even a possibility. And then I got a Ph.D. 

We truly are our ancestors' wildest dreams. 

To be clear, I'm not the first in my family to get an education or even to get a graduate degree. My parents are educated. My siblings are very educated. My cousins are educated too. We are Nigerians after all lmao. I'm not even the first doctor in my family. And by the grace of almighty God, I won't be the last.

I'm saying I don't think any of my grandparents on either side, no matter how wildly they dreamt, could have imagined any of this for their progenies. And that truly blows my mind. I have been thinking about that a lot. 

Anyway, the good thing is I now have some time for some of my passions now and if Covid ever leaves (Lord!) I owe myself the most luxurious vacation. I really do. The best part is just having time. I just have time. I feel light, free, relieved. My gift to myself these past few days has been to wake up without an alarm; I only wake up when my body is ready to wake up. I eat my meals slowly, I luxuriate in almost everything but more so while eating. I love it.

I also can now write more about academia and be much more honest. I've never lied but sometimes, I've had to cool my jets. I already have a reputation for being *ahem* let's not complete that. So I couldn't risk getting in my own way.

But now, ohohohoh LOL

Seriously, though. 

I'm hoping to write more. About academia (sure) but also about everything else. I'm hoping to focus more on this blog and all the other things I rarely had time for. 

But if I'm missing in action in the next few days, please forgive me. So much is still happening as you might expect.

A normal person would post all the celebratory pictures from the defense, right? Right.  Turns out I'm not that normal. You would have to head over to my personal Instagram page for that. I don't know why posting my pictures anywhere (even on my PERSONAL page) comes incredibly hard for me. I'm not anonymous so you can definitely find me on the interwebs if you're curious as to what I look like. 

This is a full on ramble now.

TLDR: I did a thing: I got a Ph.D. I will blog more (I hope). And I have a serious problem with posting pictures online. 

Good recap.

Love,
I

Placing Yourself where You will be Properly Valued.

A father said to his daughter “You graduated with honors. Here is a car I acquired many years ago. It is several years old. But before I transfer the ownership to you, I need you to take it to the Used-Car leadership downtown and tell them I want to sell it and see how much they will offer you.

 

The daughter went to the dealership, returned to her father and said, “They offered me $1,000 because it looks very worn out.”

The father shook his head and said, "Take it to the pawn shop.”

 

The daughter went to the pawn shop, returned to her father and said,”The pawn shop offered $100 because it was a very old car.” Once again, the father shook his head and asked his daughter to go to a car club to show them the car. The daughter did as she was told and returned to tell her father, "Some people in the club offered $100,000 for it since it’s a Nissan Skyline R34, an iconic car and sought out after by many.”

 

The father now smiled and said to his daughter, "The right place values you the right way.”

 

If you are not valued, do not be angry, it means you are in a wrong place. Those who know your value are those who appreciate you. Never stay in a place where no one appreciates your true value.

Never Give up on your Dreams and Aspirations.

Whenever you feel like calling it quits

with your lofty dreams,

remember what Richard Bach said: 

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,

the Master (God) calls a butterfly."

 

Michelle Obama in her Own Words.

"I admit: I am louder

than the average human being 

and have no fear of speaking my mind. 

These traits don't come 

from the color of my skin but 

from an unwavering belief in 

my own intelligence."

- Michelle Obama.

On Justice & the Kind of Life God Wants.

I recently found this gem the other day and thought to share. While it's particularly important for Christians, I also think it's something everyone should consider. So it is from the book of Isaiah in the Bible. Basically, God told the prophet Isaiah to pass on a message to the Israelites. The Israelites always acted very pious, God said. They would go the Temple every day and even seem happy to learn about God. They carried themselves as though they would never abandon God and like they wanted to be near Him. And when there was silence from him, they would protest:
we have fasted!
we have been really hard on ourselves; denied ourselves of life's pleasures just to please you!
why are you NOT impressed, huh?!
why do you act like you don't notice?

Sounds familiar? I bet it does. You are fasting and praying. You serve in Church. You can quote the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. You can preach the devil back to hell. So what's up? Why does God not notice it?
Well that's because while you are fasting, you are exploiting and oppressing your workers. While you are fasting, you are fighting with the whole world, and keeping malice. So you do the rites, and fast for 150 of the 365 days in the year. But God is like, nah, that kind of fasting will get you nowhere. That kind of lifestyle really doesn't please him. What kind of fasting does he want, you ask.
"No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." -  Isaiah 58: 6-7.
If you go on in that passage, it continues to say "THEN..." meaning after you do all of the above, will you experience true healing; will your godliness lead you forward; will the glory of God protect you. It is THEN that the Lord will quickly (it specifies) answer your call.  When you feed the hungry, and help those in trouble, your light will shine out.
In other words, less of you and more of others. We can see that justice, mercy, and compassion matter to God a lot. And again, we see that hypocrisy really irritates God. I'll give another instance; this time in the new testament. Jesus was dragging the Pharisees and calling them hypocrites and stuff. And then he mentioned how they do everything right, they were careful to tick all the boxes. They would even tithe the tiniest income they earned. BUT, they would ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. I'm not even kidding, Jesus called those the MORE IMPORTANT [THAN TITHE] aspects of the law. He then reiterated that while tithing was and would always be important, justice, mercy, and faith were more important.
Coincidentally, I was just joking with my dad and sister recently that while no one person can be angry about all injustices, it's important and dare I say, it's our responsibility to care about justice. There has to be something; one thing you care about. Pick that one thing and run with it, in whatever capacity you can. Is it giving the less privileged? Maybe this year instead of another useless birthday photo-shoot, you can instead ask your friends to give on your behalf? Someone on Twitter once suggested calling your local school (board) and asking to offset some lunch debt for kids. Maybe it's your time you can give: to your own family, your friends. Something...just remember God really cares about it.  Also remember you can't just consistently live for yourself and yourself alone.

The Most Wonderful People in the World.

"The most wonderful people 

are those who have 
· known defeat, 
· known suffering, 
· known struggle, 
· known loss
· and, above all,
· have found their way out of the depths. 
These individuals have 
· an appreciation,
· a sensitivity, 
· and an understanding of life 
· that fills them with 
· compassion, 
· gentleness, 
· and a deep loving concern. 
Wonderful people don't just happen."

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

The most Important Lesson about Human Nature.

In 1989, I learned from my dog, one of the most important lessons about the human nature. From Lucky, my German Shepherd, I learned that when faced with life's travails, there is a huge difference between the words of a fellow human and that of a dog. When both say, "Hey, I've got your back", beware; because while the dog remains constantly behind you, keeping faith, you'll never know when the human disappears into thin air.

The Reason why Evil Thrives.

"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

 

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his classical book, The Gulag Archipelago (1973).

The best Illustration of the Race Inequalities in America.

Vanity Upon Vanity.

While in surgery following a heart attack, a middle-aged woman sees a vision of God by her bedside.
   " Will I die?" she asks.
God answers, saying, "No. You have 30 years to live."
  With 30 more years to look forward to, the woman decides to make the best of it. So while in the hospital, she gets breast implants, liposuction, a tummy tuck, hair transplants and collagen injected into her lips. She looks great...different from what she used to be.
  On the day she gets discharged, she exists the hospital with a swagger. But as she crosses the street, a rushing ambulance hits her and she dies on the spot.
   Up in heaven, the woman sees God and is livid.
"You said I had 30 more years to live!"
   "That's true," says God.
"Well, so what happened that I'm here so soon?" she asks.
God shrugs his shoulders and says, "Guess what? I didn't recognize you..."

(Culled from the Readers Digest).

This is a Very Sad Part of Human Nature.

My Summer Internship at Google Turned Me off Silicon Valley Forever by Naomi Day.

I spent the summer of 2016 as a Google intern, working in Mountain View and living in San Francisco. It was my second summer working for Google. After having experienced the Google New York office (a relatively normal nine-to-five experience), I wanted to work in the Silicon Valley office to get to the heart of Google and to what felt like the heart of the tech industry. I had never seen the TV show Silicon Valley, though I heard it was hilarious and alarmingly close to reality. I probably should have watched it before I decided to go, but even then I’m certain I wouldn’t have believed how accurately it reflected the company.

 

It wasn’t all terrible. I remember walking through the Mission District and up the hilly neighborhood of Potrero Hill during the golden hour. Sitting on Fisherman’s Wharf, eating fresh fruit from the nearby farmers market. Queer-bar-hopping and trying Jell-O shots for the first time when a friend came up for SF Pride. Other, less blissful moments are also seared into my memory. I remember listening to Google leadership tell a crowded café of people that the most important problems to solve centered around increasing ad revenue or improving the developer experience at Google. Sitting in the endless traffic between San Francisco and Mountain View, in the fourth of a line of 10 Google-branded buses. Aching with loneliness as I looked around a building of 300 people and found that the only people who looked like me were cleaners and café workers.

There’s an apparently endless litany of seemingly small but actually huge issues that were enough to turn me off Silicon Valley forever. Here are the top three.

Tech has an enormous bubble problem, and Silicon Valley is its epicenter

I’m not talking about the tech bubble that refers to the rise in market price of technology stocks. I’m talking about a kind of invisible physical bubble, the one you’ll find on isolated university campuses where everybody’s wrapped up in their immediate surroundings. Because these surroundings comprise people concerned with much the same issues, these individuals can wind up relatively unconcerned with and unaware of the world outside the bubble.

I’ve experienced the tech bubble as one where employees are overly focused on the concerns of their day jobs, all the time. To a certain extent, this kind of bubble helps define the issues the industry deems important.

My problem with the tech bubble in San Francisco is that it encompassed the entire city all the time. It seemed like everyone in the city either worked in tech or was homeless. Any café I stepped into would be filled with people wearing Apple headphones and working on their laptops, no matter the day of the week. I couldn’t get away from the bubble, because Silicon Valley was the bubble.

This bubble had a distinct cultish feel — I was often judged solely based on my employer, regardless of my other passions and pursuits. That judgment was either unnecessarily positive (fellow techies) or incredibly negative (everybody else). My other interests were usually entirely disregarded or viewed as activities I picked up because I had disposable income and wanted to distinguish myself from other techies. I quickly realized I couldn’t see myself reflected in this bubble and that those within the bubble often didn’t care about what I found important.

It seemed like everybody in Silicon Valley had forgotten there was an entire world outside the tech bubble whose core concerns were often wildly different. Who is concerned with self-driving cars, for example, when local roads are unpaved or impassable due to disrepair? This bubble effect made me question whether tech was really helping change lives for the better when those at the heart of it seemed to think that anyone not like them didn’t exist.

‘I’ll never grow up!’

Much like Peter Pan, the Silicon Valley I saw that summer felt stuck in a certain age. We could eat every meal at work. We used the term “campus” to refer to the group of Google buildings where we worked. I experienced a sense of competition among women that, while I’m sure is not unique to the Silicon Valley tech world, I had only ever experienced in middle school. We were stuck in the world of pool tables and 4 p.m. beers, in a place where Google, Facebook, Apple, and more promised to provide for every need of every tech company employee — except that I didn’t, and don’t, fit the profile of someone whose needs are met by any of these companies’ offerings.

I was seeking a stable workplace with a balanced sense of wellness, where I could find like minds who would be interested in who I was outside of my profession. Instead, I found a place where nobody admitted we were all working for a company that clung to its youth by its fingernails, where people made competitions out of how many dining halls they could eat at in a single day and took hours-long breaks to play video games. I felt constantly out of place in Silicon Valley. I wanted to be in an environment that would challenge me to become a well-rounded individual. Instead, I found co-workers who could hold conversations only about their technology or expensive meals — two topics I was glad to leave behind when the summer ended.

The tech industry’s issues with diversity are echoed in the geographic region

I was excited to live in San Francisco and work in Mountain View because of the history of the LGBTQ community in San Francisco. My associations of the city were that of incredible local food with origins all over the world and friendly West Coasters who would happily share their city with me.

I walked 10 minutes through a winding green campus, seeing mostly white and Asian men, to get to my desk in a building where I was the only Black employee who wasn’t cleaning something. What I found alongside this rich queer history and incredible food was the reality of homelessness in Silicon Valley. My experience of the crisis was watching tech workers waiting for their company-branded buses every morning while ignoring the homeless folks who wandered by, trying to keep warm. It was seeing tech employees walk the city streets at lunchtime, leftovers in one hand and expensive computers in the other, passing inches from the feet of homeless individuals sitting on sidewalks, asking for food or money or even just a smile. It was noticing that when I interrupted a conversation to smile at someone or hand over a sandwich I had just bought, my peer would often ask, “Why are you doing that? It doesn’t help the bigger issue.” This is something I have never experienced in other cities.

And then there was the issue of racial segregation. In 2018, the Haas Institute published a series of briefs showing that while diversity might be increasing in some areas, segregation in schools and neighborhoods hasn’t gotten any better — and might be getting worse. I saw this every day that summer. I lived in the Mission District, a historically Latino neighborhood that was being gentrified practically by the day as rich young tech employees forced housing prices up. (I was contributing to this gentrification as a highly paid young tech employee choosing to live in the neighborhood. Given the option to do it over, I would make a different choice — although I’m not sure there’s a way to live ethically in San Francisco at this point.) Every morning, I walked several streets over into neighborhoods that were farther along in the gentrification process — and thus more racially homogeneous — and waited in a line of other Google employees for the Google bus to pick us up. When I got off many miles south, in Mountain View, I walked 10 minutes through a winding green campus, seeing mostly white and Asian men, to get to my desk in a building where I was the only Black employee who wasn’t cleaning something.

Silicon Valley has much to offer the world. Life-altering technological innovations have been emerging from this region for years. But it’s not the place for me, a young queer Black woman who wants to do much more than work on ad software. I still work in tech, and I will always acknowledge the ways the industry and my time in Silicon Valley have shaped the way I view many humanitarian and technological issues. But I will never work in that part of California again.

Nigerians in the Diasporas that have Died of COVID-19.

May their gentle souls rest in perfect peace. And may God, in his infinite mercies, console the loved ones they left behind.

Enjoy your COVID-19 Lockdown by Adeyemi Adefulu, MFR.

So many people who have called me are busy worrying over this stay at home period and getting stressed up. I guess some are,effortlessly, developing hypertension. This is I dare say is very sad.

Have you heard the biblical directives-“In every situation, give thanks” and “rest still and know that I am the Lord”?

If you have and you are still worrying it means you have not internalised the eternal message therein. Let me assure you that in the end everything passes away. Even COVIC-19 will pass away. For those who worry, this may be the beginning of their passage. But, my dear friend, you must make sure you don’t pass away.

The first thing to do is to stop agonizing over this period. Let me share my little experience with you.

I was 37 when the military struck in 1983. I had been in government for 4 years and 3 months. To this day, I am grateful to God for the opportunity to have served and wish I had done more. I gave the very best of my life in service. It was always what I wanted to do.

But I received an unjust, crude and inhuman recompense from the military government. Col. Oladipo Diya who was Military Governor in Ogun State thought I was so close to Onabanjo that there was no getting Onabanjo without getting Adefulu his political son. The whole purpose of his governance was bile. No wonder he is no more than a footnote of history.

I was subjected to the most scurrilous of interrogations and mental and physical torture. But they soon learnt that it was a waste of time. They had a wrong candidate. Onabanjo has run the most accountable of administrations which to this day remains a reference point. I had been prudent in my affairs before and during government. My affairs were so scrupulously document that I dazed their several panels with documents and accountability.

At a stage a Col Adeleke (I think that’s his name from Ondo town) after the final interrogation of the SIP- State Investigation Panel said to everyone, “now this is off the record- I want to learn from this young man. How were you able to keep records like this? If anyone asked me to account for how I spent my salary over the past 6 months, I can’t do it. Yet you have given us compelling records several years old which preceded this job. Did you expect that this day will come? You were obviously doing well in your profession, why did you accept a job like this?”

I will not go into my answer to the panel in this short discourse. Suffice it to say that I was in detention for 18 mths with no offense and no charges- not one accusation. I woke up from day to day with no idea of when my nightmare will end. I just stared at the outside from the distance daily and life went on without me. If I had died nothing would have stopped.

From across the road i looked at the gate of the Governors Lodge which swung open any time I was spotted in my hey days, from across the road every day for 16 months. I no longer mattered. The truth of life is that no man really matters. With or without you, life goes on.

Now back to my story, how about that? As I said, I was well under 40 with a young family. Getting heart attack from my experience or ending in Aro Psychiatric Hospital would have been very easy to accomplish.

But I learnt from very early in life that the challenge to a good life is to always look at the good or positive side of any situation. At a stage I said to myself “with all the tension from the terrible injustice being meted to me, somehow this was still an opportunity that must not be wasted.”

That meant I must use every moment well. From that moment, I ended up going to bed exhausted every night. At a stage I started reading the Bible determined to read it from cover to cover complete with commentaries here and there. I learnt to speak French taught by a prisoner from Togo, studied case files for prisoners on the death row and wrote legal opinions for their lawyers.

I wrote to some Attorney General colleagues of mine seeking reprieve for well reformed prisoners and I got quite a few of them pardoned. Mrs. Airat Balogun the then AG of Lagos State was particularly helpful.

One of my prisoner friends was a man called Baiyewu who was a childhood friend of Ayinla Omowura. When Ayinla became a famous musician Baiyewu was his Manager. They were both from a similar rough background, fought with knives and and bottles. On one occasion they had one of their scuffles. Ayinla has sacked Baiyewu and wanted to collect the motorcycle he had bought for Baiyewu.

He rode in his Mercedes Benz in search of a motorcycle. They met and a fight ensued. Baiyewu hit Ayinla with a bottle in the head and Ayinla died instantly. By the time I became a guest in Abeokuta Prison, Baiyewu had given his life to Christ and became an incredible influence in the prison. Every prisoner felt the influence of Baiyewu. He called them to prayer very early in the morning and late at night.

This condemned prisoner became a good friend of mine. If any man was ever totally and completely changed by the in living of the Holy Spirit, Baiyewu was a truly changed man. He saw Christ before he saw death because he told me, in confidence, a week before his execution, that his end was near.

Three days later Col. Diya came on a visit to the prison and signed that all the “fat” prisoners on death row be killed. Baiyewu was hung with 13 other prisoners in Abeokuta Prison wearing his best prison gear leading the others in singing to the gallows. We wept bitterly. But that’s the story for another day.

Needless to say that in the terrible condition of Abeokuta Prisoner I was very very busy. Today, those who are in the comfort of their homes for the COVIC-19 lockdown are complaining so much! This is futile.

My conclusion and counsel to everyone is that the challenge for you today is “what can I do at this time, how can I profitably utilize the time in my hands.” You may want to re arrange your wardrobes or kitchen, get rid of the many things you have around which you don’t need or do some reading, learn some gardening or baking etc.

You may even want to think about your future or rebuild the broken walls of your life. This can turn out to be a wonderful time you will never forget. It will not come again. The secret is to use it well and profitably. Enjoy your COVID-19 Lockdown.

For Those who Refuse to Heed the Warnings about COVID-19.

Pack the Plates.

Usually, my mum would leave some piece of meat for the person packing her plates after meal.

My motivation to pack her plate was the meat. On a particular day, the plate was empty and I just walked pass. One of my brothers came around, moved by a sense of duty and packed the plates. Mum thanked him and while he engaged both hands carrying the plates, she asked him to open his mouth as she dunked a mouthful chunk! The plate was empty, but her hand was full. I didn't see the hand, I only checked the plate. That lesson never left me.

The reward for packing some plates of responsibilities and duties may not be visible on the plates but wrapped within the faithful fingers of devotion, dedication and selfless service to humanity.

Many people walk pass their fulfillment by looking the other way from obligations simply because the plate poses with an empty reward.

I have since learnt that greatness is postpaid. Greatness is rarely advertised on the screen of reward but disguised like an empty manger bearing the burden of a full Inn.

You cannot predict the weight of a child by the size of his mother. If you missed the blessings of being responsible to your siblings, clients, partner, friends and others, the best thing an anointing oil from a pastor will do in your life is to fry your head for dinner in the 'canteen of frustration'.

So, be eager to pack the plates you find on the table of responsibility: at home, office, neighborhood, the associations you belong to, everywhere...

Don't look at or mind those making fun of you, be intentional and live a life of meaningful impacts in this side of eternity. 

In this life's journey, try to pack the plates along the way. And the Almighty God will reward you.

Everything is Based on Mind,

“Everything is based on mind,

is led by mind and is fashioned by mind.

If you speak and act with a polluted mind,

suffering will follow you,

as the wheels of the ox-cart follow the footsteps of the ox.

Everything is based on mind,

is led by mind and is fashioned by mind.

If you speak and act with a pure mind,

happiness will follow you,

as a shadow clings to a form.”

- Buddha.

How Many Friends have you Taken for Granted?

Today, I received some bad news about the passing on of a dear friend. I feel ashamed to call my friend dear because I saw my friend slowly die and I did nothing. It began some time back, when I noticed my friend stopped smiling. Though I noticed, I never asked what was wrong. We live in a day and age of everyone minding their business. My friend's wellbeing should be my business.

 

Then I noticed my friend disappearing online. My friend stopped posting, was nowhere on social media. I never bothered to ask why. I was busy connecting with those who are active. Then my friend stopped coming to Church. We used to sit together in Church, serve. I never followed up why the absence. "I don't beg people to come to worship" I thought. 

 

Then I started hearing stories about my friend. In fact, I ganged up with others to gossip about my friend. We gossiped as if we were experts of how my friend should live. I gossiped, instead of reaching out. When I scrolled through my phone book list, I passed my friend's contact. I waited for my friend to speak to me first, knowing very well my friend seemed to be going through something.

When my friend did call, I ignored. I failed to reply the messages, too busy. Or, maybe I thought my friend was calling to ask me for money, based on the gossip I was told. I used to pray for my friend, but slowly I stopped. It appears that out of sight, out of prayers.

 

Then today, I was told my friend has died. My friend, all along was struggling, feeling alone, yet all I did was nothing but assumptions. My friend was stressed, depressed then committed suicide.

 

Here I am, asked to give a speech at the funeral, yet the tears I cry are for how I failed my friend when my friend was still living. My friend is not coming back for me to love better. Maybe if I cared things would have turned out different. 

 

Look back and see the friends you have pushed away, ignored or taken for granted. Call up that old friend, care for the one who has gone silent. People are going through so many issues behind those fake smiles and glossy social media posts; And all they need is a true friend.

 

Be a true friend before it is too late.