Ada: Birthday Blues

So, it’s my birthday today. Forgive me, but I don’t feel particularly excited. I don’t even know if there is anything to be excited about.

Let’s just say this is not how I wanted to celebrate my 24th birthday. Or let’s just say, it didn’t help that I thought too much of myself.

In my last year of secondary school, we were asked to make a five-year plan. A not-too-long term plan that would contain everything we hoped to have achieved in five years. As you can imagine, we went wild. A lot of people wrote a lot of crazy things that could not even be achieved in thirty years.

One of my classmates, Helen, actually wrote in her plan that by the next five years, she would have featured in three Hollywood movies, married the man of her dreams (an Igbo Prince that studied abroad to be precise), had three babies (I should add that she specified that she wanted triplets because according to her, she wanted to bear the pain of labor and childbirth once in her life), and bought a mansion in Manhattan (even while she lived in a one-room apartment with her parents and two siblings).

She became the joke of the class when our teacher mentioned it while discussing the project. We all laughed at her and she only smiled at us. She might not be exactly where she planned to be now but she has made bigger moves than any of us have. She has started her Nollywood career already and has started moving with the bigwigs in the industry, taking pictures and dining with people I only see on my screen. Last I heard, she was also engaged to a Lagos big boy. A Yoruba man to be exact. The fact is that although everything had not followed through to the letter, she knew what she wanted and she was working towards it.

Asides big dreamers like Helen, there was also my group. The mildly ambitious. In this group, we knew what we wanted, we were sure of the heights we wanted to attain but we were too scared, too humble to even consider it. So, we watered down our dreams and went for the conventional. My five-year plan only contained one major move and that was graduating from Law school. Or at least, to still be in school studying Law. I also added that I would have started a business and moved out of my parents’ house.

Now, it’s three years after the five-year mark and I don’t even have an idea of what a Law textbook looks like. My mother still sends me an allowance and I have to ask for her permission before leaving the house. To be honest, this is not how I planned to be 24. Hell, this is not even how I planned to be 21!

“Ada, your phone is ringing!” My mother shouts from the living room.

Who could be calling?

I had already received two calls from old friends that morning and it made me crack a smile every time. It was 10 am already and I was ready to turn in for the day, despite how early it was. I decided not to pick up.

“Ada, did you not hear me? I said your phone is still ringing!” My mother shouts again, thirty minutes later.

It occurs to me that whoever is calling probably has something important to tell me. It couldn’t be for my birthday. Maybe someone died or something.

When I finally got a hold of my phone, I smiled. Jane. My darling friend. In fact, my only friend.

“This one that you’re calling me one million times today, hope there is nothing?” I said.

She laughs out loud. “You’re not happy I’m even calling you? Am I not like…your only friend?”

I wince. “Ouch. I have a lot of friends.”

“Like the ones outside your gate right now abi?”

“Ehn? I swear I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

She laughs out loud again. For longer this time. “Are you dressed?”

“Somehow. Dressed enough to not be naked but not suitable for public viewing.”

“Get dressed and come outside the gate in two minutes. I dropped off something for you.”

“Awwww. My birthday gift? You’re really my only friend. I love you so much, stupid girl.”

“You’re not okay. Be fast oh! The dispatch rider will be around in at most, five minutes.”

I hung up the call and ran like a madwoman to change my clothes. I thought I wasn’t excited but the thought of getting a gift energized me. In less than three minutes, I was in front of my gate opening it, and…

“SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADA!!!”

Standing right in front of me is the group of people I consider my friends, my true family. They were all wearing silly hats and grinning from ear to ear, holding wrapped gifts. An unknown guy was even playing the trumpet.

And Jane was right there, holding the biggest cake I’ve ever had my name written on, with the biggest smile of all on her face.

“Now, look who has friends!”

All pictures are from Pexels and no attribution is required.