Birthday is usually a reflective time for me and this year is no different.

It’s a new season and I’m no longer fighting it or trying to prove anything to anyone. This new season pulls me to go deeper and with this comes the privilege of reading more. In one of my recent studies, I stumbled on a simple line “Burbn to Instagram”. I paused and had to read the line again as I thought to myself “Are they saying what I think that they’re saying? That the app Instagram that we know today was previously/originally named Burbn”. I took a dive into Google and guess what? Google confirmed it, Burbn was initially created as a check-in app by two men (not Zuckerberg), it had a photo-sharing feature that people used more, and gradually the app improved to being sold to Facebook now Meta. Interesting right? I agree.

I spent quite a while reading this “Burbn to Instagram” evolution because somehow I found motivation for my recent evolution story. I can truly affirm that I have grown from a tiny young girl who loves her peace but desired greatness and impacting her world to a young lady living her dreams with progressive strides. Realizing that greatness is not a destination, it’s in the everyday becoming- I’m daily committed to my everyday becoming.  If I were to describe myself in 3 words, they will be; Calm, God-centric, and Purpose-driven.

Calm

I was quite young when I made certain decisions that shaped me. First among those decisions was my decision to quit fighting my kid brother(Normal siblings fight, lol). When we were younger, we fought over almost everything. One day after our fight I just decided that I won’t engage in a physical fight with my brother again rather I will keep quiet and try as much as possible to mind my business. Similarly, I decided to be that person who does little or no shouting regardless of the prevalent situation. These two decisions are key shapers to who I am right now and yes I daily enjoy the goodness of staying calm without internal or external strife.

God-centric: 

I am unapologetically God-centric. Daily living a life of surrender to God. Just like my name Ifeoluwa (God’s will) implies, I am committed to living in alignment with God’s will. This does not mean that I’m a perfect human being, no I’m not. However, I always find my way back to God whenever I mess up. I’m not ashamed to call him Father in my unfaithful state whenever I err. This helps me to stay in His love and assurance that He got me anytime any day. There’s nothing more soothing than this!

Purpose-driven:

I love clarity, which fuels my strides or effort in any given task or assignment. As long as I’m convinced about the positive purpose a task holds, I simply commit to it. I’m not a fan of seeing things drag. If there’s work to do, let’s get on it. Life is in seasons, identifying the purpose of each season is vital to my modus-operandi per season. This present phase of my life is a season to dig deeper, even when it is tempting to spread thin for the purpose of external validation. But you know what? Eyes remain on the goal.

For my last year’s birthday, I desired an atmosphere of solitude to just read, pray and sleep. I had to intentionally chase that and achieve it. Right now, I’m thankful that the things that I desired and chased last year have become often features of my present lifestyle. Similarly, I really wanted a particular book as one of last year’s birthday gifts, it didn’t come as a birthday gift but earlier this year a friend gifted me some books, and guess what…my desired book was among the books received. 

Yorubas have a saying “ Ohun ti koto a pada wa seku”. This is a saying that ignites faith and it has been evident in my life in different areas of my life. I’m literally a woman helped by God and I’m thankful to God for every turn, stop, bend, and motion in my life’s journey. Happy birthday to me, Ifeoluwa-DIFE, The Father’s Daughter. Cheers to a life of joy, impact, and fulfillment🥂🥂🥂.