Ls & Ws: Lessons from my POV
Life, they say is like a game, you lose some, you win some and sometimes you have to lose some to win again. Ultimately, you learn from those experiences and a few of them are what I like to call 'the trials and travails of my devices and I'.
You know the thrill that comes with getting something new, especially when you didn’t have to pay for it yourself? That exhilarating moment when it’s given to you? Well, that’s precisely how I felt when I got a new phone last year… rewarded, appreciated, and happy. The circumstances that gave way to my getting one were pretty regular, my old one was becoming too much of a problem and so I needed an upgrade. I had a few options but I eventually picked a Huawei for various reasons. Fortunately/unfortunately the Huawei company had a falling out with Google that week and there was a possibility they’d create their own interface in the nearest future which would affect the phones that were already stocked up and ready to be sold but quite frankly, I couldn’t have cared less, I just wanted a phone. I was advised to be patient and watch to see how things would play out but ah! once my mind is made up, it’s made up niyen, so I got the phone. The day after, Huawei settled its issues with Google and so things were all good or so they seemed. Barely two days after, Huawei unveiled a new product which was more advanced than the one I’d gotten, in other words, that new model bodied my phone and laughed at me while at it. I immediately remembered that I was advised to be patient, the newer one could’ve been mine but it wasn’t because stubbornness is sometimes blinding.
“Patience is a virtue but it’s also a tough lesson”
Months passed and the phone had been nothing but good to me so I was taken by surprise when it decided to acquire a mind of its own. Do you know what betrayal feels like? I do now. You know when your phone falls in water and in your mind of minds you know it’s waterproof but somehow you’re convinced that the oyibo water it was tested with is different from ours so you think it’s all over for that phone? Well, that is exactly how I didn’t feel, I was quite calm after, especially because my phone wasn’t acting up, its battery was low anyway so some minutes later it died, little did I know that the gbese was just testing mic. I tried to charge it but it wasn’t responding, tried to start it but it wasn’t at all ready to come on… ehn? A phone that I’d not used for up to a year! Is this a curse? Could it be my village people? What is happening?!
I tried everything but it just refused to pity me and come on, one particular YouTube video even suggested putting it back in the water for a while… like?! Am I a joke to these guys?
After burying it in rice for three days and it still didn’t resurrect, I realised that the phone was ‘grace’ and I wasn’t going back to ‘grass’. As the saying goes, desperate times require desperate measures, so I decided to pray for the phone. I didn’t have much faith that it would work but I did it anyway, I’d pray for a few minutes then try to switch it on and every time it would laugh at me by not coming on. Finally, I had had enough and I was determined, I summoned every possible atom of faith within myself and prayed, this time I was sure it was going to work. I pressed the power button and it came on, I didn’t even realise it when I screamed, I plugged it in and it started charging again, the rest, they say, is history.
“There can be miracles when you believe…”
By now you’d think that the phone couldn’t show me pepper again but… for where?! Huawei screens are known to be durable, expensive and almost irreplaceable but durable all the same. In my head, I replaced the word ‘durable’ with ‘indestructible’ and na so wahala take start. There’s nowhere this phone didn’t fall, road ooh, from tables ooh, even from my earphone cord and every time it fell people will be shocked by how unbothered I was by it so I’d laugh it off and say, “don’t worry, it’s a Huawei” yes that’s exactly what you think it is… pride. I had so much confidence in my phone that nothing could happen to its screen and I was rudely awakened. During my first week back home because of COVID-19, I was comfortably seated on a chair, watching videos and my phone slipped through my fingers and fell on the tiled floor but this time was different, I knew it in my heart. I picked it up, turned it over and the screen that was staring back at me couldn’t be mine because this one looked like it had been struck by lightning. It didn’t crack, it shattered.
“Pride goes before a fall”
…in my case, literally.
The pain you feel after losing an SD card or accidentally erasing your phone/laptop can be devastating. Now think back to a time when someone lost something that belonged to you and the situation could’ve been easily avoided. Join the pain from those two together because it’s a remix!
Three years ago, my SD card (at the time) fell into my family’s TV (a story for another day) and it wasn’t my fault, as you can imagine, my reaction was epic. I was spiralling: angry, hurt, frustrated, irritated, and sad but nothing could be done. I remember being upset for days and bringing it up at the slightest provocation. Now, three years later, I had completely forgotten anything like that ever happened but then that TV needed to be serviced and in the process of opening it up, that SD card fell out. I wasn’t there so my mum called for me to come to get it and at first, I had no idea what she was talking about but after a little reminder, I ran to collect it. I was so happy and while looking at it to see if it was still okay, I saw it… 32 GB. You mean I was upset over a 32 GB SD card?! For what reason? I couldn’t help but laugh, omo just 32 GB? Eventually, I checked it and it had spoilt, so whatever I was so upset about three years ago was still lost anyway but three years later… it didn’t even matter.
“If it won’t matter in 5 years, don’t spend more than 5 minutes being angry or upset about it”
That time in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown when most people were taking breaks from social media to preserve their mental health while some others were battling with their online exams, people like me were busy begging our phones not to give up on us because for some reason a lot of people’s phones/laptops went bad around that time. Just as expected, the phone suddenly started acting up and stopped charging. At that point, I realised it was time to just let it go. The saying, ‘third time’s the charm’ is one that I’ve heard on several occasions but in my case, that word charm definitely meant jazz because that’s the only reasonable answer as far as I’m concerned. Welp! That phone was jazzed and it ended in premium tears but on to the next, we move!
“Three strikes and you’re out”
In the spirit of devices, here are ten TV shows to check out:
1. Dear White People (Netflix)
2. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix)
3. Altered Carbon (Netflix)
4. The Bold Type (Freeform)
5. Good Trouble (Freeform)
6. My Flatmates (Africa Magic)
7. Hustle (Africa Magic)
8. Boomerang (BET)
9. Deadly Class (Netflix)
10. Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS)
Stay safe and be well!
*originally published August 14, 2020
