You can read all the books. Watch all the documentaries. Listen to all the stories. But nothing, and I mean nothing, will prepare you for certain moments in life until you're standing in them yourself. Marriage. Divorce. Childbirth. Losing someone you love. Parenting. They all look so different when it's your heart on the line. Your choices. Your pain. Your mess. Your miracle.
It's easy to sit on the outside with theories, opinions, and assumptions. It's easy to think you'd handle it better. Until life turns to you and says, "Your turn." And suddenly, you understand. You understand the tears. The silence. The fight to keep going. The strength it takes to show up when everything feels heavy. The courage it takes to start over.
Life has a way of humbling us all. So be slow to judge, quick to offer grace, and always remember, what you don't understand today, you just might face tomorrow. We're all just figuring it out as we go. And that's more than okay.
On Friday, April 25th at 5:13am, my father went to be with his eternal best friend.
The night before, I had cleaned him up, fed him dinner, put balm on his body, and insisted that he be put on oxygen.
I sat up beside him as he asked for his glasses to read a few messages.
The One Who Wears Big Caps for Little Children.
These are my final thoughts before I hand over my phone to management. The team says I need to sleep.
But before the world goes quiet around me, allow me say a few things…
It’s my second time doing this insane thing of trying to break a world record.
You’d think it would be easier now,after all I’ve done it before. But that’s the thing about impossible things:
The first time, you survive them because you don’t yet understand the cost.
Now that I’m fully aware of the exertion it takes both physically and mentally, I’m equal parts excited and terrified. I embrace both.
Today I’ll tell you why I always wear a cap…
The night before I left Nigeria for this journey, something happened.
It was 9pm on a Tuesday night.
I was at the mall picking up some last-minute items.
Two boys, scruffy and barefoot approached me at the car park.
They were hungry and hadn’t eaten all day.
I asked their names.
“Yusuff,” said one. “Ayomide,” said the other. Both young teenagers.
As I turned to check for cash in the car, the light hit my face and Yusuff immediately recognized me and blurted out “Chess players observe,”
I was stunned.
That was our mantra at Chess in Slums, it was what we taught the kids. I asked how he knew this, he explained that he had seen me months prior at their ghetto.
This made sense as we had spent the entire month of December teaching chess and maths to street children in that ghetto. Yusuff wasn’t part of the training but on the day of the final tournament, he watched from a distance as the other kids chanted “chess players observe”. It stayed with him ever since.
He told me his story.
His mother died during childbirth. His father disappeared.
He lived with his ailing grandmother for sometime but had to leave for the streets to fend for himself. It’s been five years of trying to survive in his own
Five years of growing up too fast…He is 15 years old now.
Then, something surreal happened.
A white Range Rover pulled up beside us.
A woman rolled down the window, “Chess master!” she called out.
She stepped out with her son Jayden.
Impeccably dressed. British accent.
She wanted a photo. Jayden loves chess.
She’s a fan.
So there they stood, Jayden and Yusuff.
Both teenagers.
One in branded sneakers. The other barefoot.
One polished by privilege. The other hardened by survival.
As I asked them to introduce themselves,
Yusuff’s confidence crumbled.
He looked down. His voice faltered.
I took a selfie with Jayden and his Mum, and as they drove off I had my epiphany….
And in that moment, I saw it:
The cruel reality of the world we live in
where a boy like Jayden and a boy like Yusuff would never meet
except by accident or because I happened to stand between them.
But what separated them wasn’t merit or character, It was birth. The arbitrary lottery that decides who gets to dream,
and who must survive.
Jayden will likely go on to attend the best schools, see the world, and live fully. While
Yusuff probably ends up doing the bidding of whoever can promise him his next meal.
An Area boy.
I have met thousands of bright eyed children like Yusuffs in this life, whose pain is invisible, and by no fault of theirs live in a world where their suffering doesn’t matter.
Sometimes, we save them.
Sometimes, we fail.
But I will never stop carrying this burden in my heart.
This is why I wear big caps for little children and wear one my self.
So the world may see them in all their colors, not for the suffering they bear,
but for what I know they can truly become.
I hope have shared this burden with you as honestly as I could.
If you ever believed in me, believe in them.
Cheer for them. Donate. Share. Amplify.
We are trying to build the largest free school in Africa.
A sanctuary for every child like Yusuff
where their dreams won’t die quietly.
I do this so their dreams may find validation in my sacrifice.
I have to go now, big day ahead. Gotta make it count.
Ultimately, when both the applause and critiques have subsided, it remains solely your journey to navigate every single day and it’s a lonely one I promise.
Just stay true to your convictions and never stop leading with your heart.
Fellow Ghanaians, the Constitutional Review Committee is taking submissions—if you want change, speak up. Tweet at them (@CRCGH25), join the live sessions, or send a proposal. Let’s actively work at turning this nation around! ✊🏾🇬🇭
Chat gpt is great but I posted a job opening and one person applied with a copy and paste application from chat gpt. It had "insert name" , "insert culinary school". And this person sent the email just like that without actually inserting these things . Bro
My name is Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta and I am a gospel musician from Ghana. I just released my very first EP and I want you to take a listen!
Tap on the link & be blessed:
https://t.co/utuZotqFEr
How your partner was loved as a child will show up in: how they react when hurt, how they communicate during conflict, and how they respond when you share your feelings.
As a Job Hopper, I was never afraid of an Interviewer asking me about my Job Hopping.
I actually looked forward to it.
I always had to prepare myself for how to answer questions as to why I did.
Here’s what I would say and I invite you to use this script for your own benefit.
On 12th September 2022, I arrived the UK to resume my masters degree program.
My wife & kids joined me 3 weeks later. Then the journey began…
I couldn’t work more than 20 hours a week, so it was left for my wife to work full time. After a few weeks of working to ensure the bills are paid & we could feed properly, she told me to my face that it’s Distinction or nothing.
She made me make that promise & that if I broke it, there would be consequences. It was a warning, but I took it as a threat 🤣 🤣
Anyways, I turned to God & said only you can do this for me. I will do my best but crown my effort with good success.
Daily my wife would leave home around 6am to work, so I mostly would have made breakfast at 2-4am so she could have food to work, bathed the children at 7am, taken my daughter to school, go pick her up at 3pm with my son; & in between I rush to classes, attend practicals (sometimes get to class late). My sleep pattern scattered; I studied only mostly at midnights, cos that’s the only time I had, after preparing the dishes & co. My wife would do the laundry mostly too. I was tired but God gave me strength; I was stretched but I didn’t break.
Despite all of these, I would be there to host #BibleStudyOnSpace weekly & was active in Church too. I sincerely couldn’t believe I could do all these.
God saw all these, & knew I indeed deserved nothing but a Distinction in MSc Data Science.
I am grateful to God Almighty, My beautiful wife, my children, my parents, family & in-laws. They all supported me by all means & I am grateful to God for blessing me with such a beautiful family.
Enjoy the pictures ☺️
Please be careful on the Spintex road. There are some flooded parts, especially for smaller and lower cars.
This is part of why we are protesting. Everything doesn’t work in this country, even major roads. #OccupyJulorbiHouse