The Concept Of Love

From Drew

I woke up one morning with a question ringing in my head. I tried to shake it off but it kept coming to me.

I tried all the old tricks you do when you want to forget something, such as playing loud touching music, and getting yourself busy, but they failed miserably. The thought came back, this time much stronger, very provoking and more out put together.

Again, I tried to write it off, my job as a journalist is very stressful and I thought that would be the perfect escape route.

The plan was to get to work and start contacting sources to a story I was working on.

Need I say the plan did not work out? Well, at least it did for some time, but the moment I forwarded the story to my boss the thought came running back into my prefrontal cortex.

That was the moment I gave up, I knew it would not go away and the more I tried to ignore it the more justified the thought would be.

I knew I could not continue ignoring it. I knew it would be impossible for me to carry on with the rest of the day if I did not act on it. The urge grew bigger and stronger by the second.

So I picked up my phone and called by brother, we call him Trig, “What are we doing for daddy on his retirement day? You know we have to do something,” I said, the moment he answered the call. I do not recall even asking how he was doing.

Just as myself, he had been fighting with the same angel thought, and after a few more calls to the rest of the family members we realized that same thought had invaded our minds and taken over our thinking process.

It was after that moment that the covert operation to give my dad the best 60^th birthday and retirement surprise party ever began taking shape.

I remember the moment I had to lie to my dad to explain why chairs and tables had been arranged at the house, (we got him out of the house but he wasn’t all that well so he had to come home and the secret handler we appointed had no choice).

Lying to him was the only way to keep the surprise alive, I told him my former GIJ course mates were holding a meeting and my house was chosen as the venue. He did not get any hint since there was no food being prepared to indicate a party was being organized.

That day was the best day of my life; 31^st of May.

Richard Sam Komeiteh Botchway (we call him Ricardo) will always be our best friend in this world. We love you and thank you for being our inspiration of being better human beings.

I learned that no matter how busy we are, there are some people we just do not have enough excuse to not to show them love and in such instances there is no need fighting it. just go ahead and let the person know. 

STAYING CONNECTED

Hello lovely reader of our blog, well its Lemuel here ...
Most likely due to the fast paced life nowadays, some of you might not even read this.Also those reading might not be able finish reading this whole article. Nevertheless, if you are of the latter group,even before you leave, I want to thank you for taking time out to come here.

As long as you are working class, life moves so fast we tend to get unconnected with friends and sometimes even family.

Well I must admit that, I personally, have been not good at keeping up with my former mates and friends.Due to some personal traits(I enjoy solitude ruff!), also when I have problems I tend to recoil into a my shell, and recently I have had many of those. Infact this post having kept this long before being posted is further proof of my my love of solitude.

I want to use this article to reach out to all friends,with whom I have kept in touch and with those that I have not. 

That being the case,  I want to give just a gist of small stuff that has happened, recently but has not been substantial enough for a whole article to be dedicated to it on www.lifebeyonduniversity.blogspot.com.

Well starting from ending of last year....here we go!

●At my graduation from GIJ, I won two awards,  for the overall best student and best student in Journalism (Diploma).This is for those who never knew.

●I appeared on a poetry radio show on citi fm.

●My work got published in an international poetry anthology,(Black Communion)

●I now write for the Glorious Accra Hearts of Oak.(hush!hush!but still looking for another job though.)
Hmmmmm what else...

●Yes! I miss Deborah Maame Yaa Ayim, but she has found love....so she is flexing me.

●Yes and I am still  working on my personal poetry anthology (Later, a whole article will be dedicated to it )

 

photocredit:gramlinglaw.com

For all my friends,mates, and acquaintances, know that some of you have impacted me in ways you all would never know.
So in my life beyond university, i want to stay connected, because no matter how close you are to someone, a lack or  inadequate communication can become the ever growing barrier between you.Trust me guys, i ve  lost dear friends because of that.

However, if  I know you, and you have  also not kept in touch, shame on you too.

As one friendly turn deserves another, i ve done my part.Check up on a brother,  pleease don't wait till I get rich before, you never know, I would not recognize you then...*wink*.

P.S Till our next post.

BLOGCAMP MAKING OUR BLOG BETTER

Drew, Jonny & Lemuel

                                                                    From Jonny

BLOGCAMP 2014 was another great one. The in-depth lectures and knowledge- filled breakout sessions on thematic areas of social media coupled with a cool lunch, memorable  photo sessions and the Social Media Awards as its climax, managed to recharge my dying blogging battery ready to create   “The New phase of Social Media” just like the theme aptly  put it.

The new tips and tricks that came with the recharge which included “forget the words, use photos” would definitely manifest in my forth coming posts.

I do not regret travelling all the way from Cape Coast for the Camp except that the elimination of raffle which blocked my chance of winning a phone broke my heartbroken.

Thanks Angie, my new friend who hates Mfantsipim School with passion, @yawsarpon whose misplaced tag and money has begun a new friendship, my soul sister Vida Essel and my magnanimous co hosts of this blog for making BLOGCAMP 2014 a memorable one.

Next year, I hope to be approached by someone whose first words would be “Are you Jonny of LifeBeyond University? Congratulations for winning the best blog award.

LBU Team with Vida

From Drew

Unlike Jonathan, in my opinion, Blogcamp 14 was not as fun as the Blogcamp 12 &13. Maybe, it is because there was no raffle for gifts or the fact that there weren't many funny tweets that were being beamed onto the screens by the projector.

However, the event went on to meet my expectations. I gained more knowledge on how to make this blog a lot better.

I made a couple of diamond friends I'm working hard to keep. And I also had a good time with my crazy friends Vida, Jonathan and Lemuel and that was my secret aim of going to the Blogcamp.

The Selfie!!

From Lemuel

Drew has disclosed a secret and I will do likewise, if my memory serves me correctly, a few days before Blogcamp2014, we saw our audience stats and they were totally embarrassing for us and all our fans.

So you can guess my friends and I did not only attend Blogcamp14 just hangout, but instead, to find ways to improve traffic to our blog and make all our fans proud of LBU. 

I mean Blogcamp2014, like always was a confluence of bloggers and friends. The almost close knit community of bloggers, actively working away on devices and even sharing a meal was my high point. And yes, we came back with creative ideas to improve LBU, Thank you Blogging Ghana!

REKINDLING OUR PASSION

From right: Lemuel, Jonny and Drew

From Lemuel

At the Ghana Institute of Journalism, one lecturer after another preached the importance of having and running a blog.

Then came Mr.Yaw Odame Gyau (aka Saanaa), who insisted we all create personal blogs. He said he would check on our blogs and give marks. Well guess what, most of us did create blogs. Even though he never got around checking, it was from there I became a blogger!

Last year's blogcamp was personally my very first and boy was it fun!

I never knew there were so many bloggers and people who are interested in blogging. Then a roller coaster of events occured, in which I won a prize, I wasn't even available to claim, because I had left early to run an errand.

This year, I’m prepared and I look to enjoy every bit of the programme. So at this point, I'd say, BLOGCAMP 2014, BRING IT ON!!

                                                                        ~

From Jonny

As Lemuel said, some lecturers at GIJ made attempts but my very first blogcamp actually succeeded in arousing in me a resilient craving to continue the blogging expedition I began but abandoned in 2009. As I left the Kofi Annan ICT Centre that night, I felt delighted that I made it because I had finally acquired that power to my elbow which absence halted my journey. 

The effects of the power was the conception of Fiction Files, Jonny Donkor and My Stolen Shots all of which I independently manage and Life Beyond University  which I co-author with my blogcamp freak friends. 

The journey has been pretty cool and each time I see many bloggers under one roof sharing their experiences, I feel more energized. To this end, I cannot afford to miss this year’s edition because I am running out of power and my elbow is jerking. I’m not a scientist but I have propounded a power theory which states that 12+4+2014 (12th April 2014) is equal to BLOGCAMP and BLOGCAMP is just a synonym of Power.

Want to test my Power theory? See you there.

                                                                          ~

From Drew

Gearing up for Blogcamp14, I am filled with excitement and nostalgia to the extent that I can’t seem to stop checking the calendar to April 12.

Blogcamp, organized by BloggingGhana really opened my scope of knowledge on the internet and how I can contribute to the development of my country using the World Wide Web. I must say that before my first blogcamp i was a blogger, however, that was for academic purposes. 

This supercharged blog came into being after attending an inspiring Blogcamp13. Looking forward to Blogcamp14, as a co-author of this blog, I’m hoping  to be more motivated and gain more knowledge and understanding on how to make this blog a success!

A TALE OF TWO TENANTS

From Jonny...

The Marriage of my three big sisters, my brother's job, the education of my two younger siblings and recently  the demise of my dad have turned the once noisy and lively house  of ours into a quiet place with  just my mum, myself and the dogs occasionally slumming doors and barking respectively.

The idea of renting some of the rooms out though bitter to swallow became necessary since I am hardly in the house to keep my mother company due to the nature of my work as “a professional gossip”.

I have heard fascinating compound house stories from friends, relatives and seen their enactment in TV series such as Neighbours, The Tenants, Living with Tricia and a number of African movies and so I consider the arrival of the new tenants as a chance to experience and confirm these tales.

I was battling with the 26 letters of the alphabet in search of a suitable title for a news story I had just completed when a truck pulled up in front of our house amidst corn mill -like noise.

My three dogs I collectively call Girls- Girls began to bark.  Two persons; a man and a woman alighted from the front of the truck just as I came out of my room to find out whose arrival had woken up my girls which were brooding over the loss of their little one, knocked down by a car after seeing me off to work earlier in that morning.

I could not immediately make them out from the distance because I was not in my glasses. But after drawing a bit near the truck and seeing the sofa, the queen size mattress, the dressing mirror with some “tapole”, ladles and other assorted cooking utensils peeping from a big basket tightly tied together with a variety of household items at the back of the truck, I immediately confirmed that the newly married couple who had rented some rooms in our house   were ready to move in.

Behold, the status of our private residence of over 25 years is about to change to become a compound house with all the wahala that comes with that change.

I am going to miss our private life especially the washroom moments. I can no longer spend long hours on the water closet reading a novel, newspaper, browsing, whatsapping or even generating some stories and ideas as I “download”. I can no longer sing like it's nobody's business as I shower but it's not bad at all because after all I am the landlord.

I see the change as part of life and as the two tenants move in with their bags, baggage and bundle of behavior, I am prepared and poised to share “my washroom”, utility bills and take up the responsibilities as a landlord.

 A tale of two tenants has begun, Life beyond university continues.

DEATH HACKED MY DREAM

From Drew

2009, I paid little attention to him. I started listening to the BBC Radio after June 2009. I could listen 24/7, but I always looked out for the BBC’s World Today (now News Day).

I always loved waking up at dawn, lie on my bed and listen to Komla’s voice, not so much of the news when he is on air, just the voice.

I had always wanted to be in the news media, until recently that public relations started cropping into my heart. Listening to him, while he was miles away in London, I knew I had made the right decision to divert from business

to media and communications.

He wasn't my only inspiration though; Oprah Winfrey is also one of the people I looked up to, to gather the courage and go into the media. Oprah once said, “You need to find a way to make money from what you love”.

I love the media, it is hot, fast, no room for delay, very little room for error, adrenaline and testosterone flowing everywhere, camera, lights, pen, paper, microphones, attention (yeah attention), incredible power to determine the subject of conversation of people I will never meet or know, and most of all, the ability to loose yourself in a story and shape people's opinions.

So it was just right that I get a career and earn money from doing something I really, really, really loved.

I have never told my friends about this, but I always imagined myself interviewing Komla and Oprah (not at the same time) and of course the Queen, sometimes I sit in my room and talk to myself, pretending like I'm interviewing one of them. 

You might not get it, but it's just like what aspiring musicians do, when they stand in front of their mirror and sing pretending they are singing to a crowd of people, when really, the only audience they have is their own image in the mirror mimicking them and not paying attention to their incredible or not so incredible voice.

Just like myself whose dream of interviewing Komla is now going to be just that (a dream), I know Komla also really wanted to interview the man himself, Nelson Mandela (he never got the chance too).

Recovering from the sad news of his death, one thing I cheered myself with was that, “Komla just couldn't wait to interview Nelson Mandela, and that he had to follow him to where he is”.

         ~~Rest In Peace Komla, from my LBU friends and myself~~