Its April! Yayyy!!! Welcome to the month of April, a month blessed with juicy April fools day stories because it’s April fools day. Yippee!!!
Okay please don’t fool me today I beg you.
Waking up this morning made me happy because today is my friends birthday (Happy birthday Aida) and couldn’t help but remember that today is also April fools day which comes with lots of April fools day stories.
I don’t know who invented this April fools day but I’m eternally grateful to that person for setting out a day where we get to fool or prank people to our hearts content and enjoy their reaction hahahaha
Thinking of April fools day made me remember how someone fooled me and the entire class in Secondary school.
I think it was in SS2 or SS3 during night prep. We were standing and gisting at the corridor when we were supposed to be reading inside the classroom when immediately someone shouted “Principal is coming.”
The person shouting was also running like his life depended on it.
My God! The entire corridor was in chaos. Everyone was running. I think I practically flew because I was not about to receive another flogging that night. How I reached my sit still baffles me. In twenty seconds the entire corridor was empty, my class was as silent as a grave yard. The only thing you could hear was our panting and heavy breathing.
Everyone immediately brought out their books and pretended to be reading. We were so focused that we visualized the Principal starring at us with his serious glasses and fat cane. Only for us to hear a loud scream, “April fools day!”
No one still believed.
“April fools day!” He shouted again laughing out loud.
That was when we knew we were fooled. hahaha I was shocked. I mean who wouldn’t be? I and the others felt like killing him. It was a good prank but it was painful.
The fear, sweat and shock was such a painful experience. At the end of the day we all had a good laugh and I never forgot that day.
***
Did you enjoy that story? Reminiscing on this story made me laugh a lot and I wondered how may April fools day stories are out there. So i asked a few of my friends to share their April fools day stories with us for the purpose of spreading laughter and good memories.
Here are 3 April fools day stories that would shock you
I told a friend once that I was very sick and I was hospitalized. That was on a 31th of March. Then on 1st April, I switched off my phone because of a low battery forgetting my prank. My friend had to call my mom asking her “How is your son?” My mom was like “He is fine.” She said he told me that he was seriously sick and hospitalized. My mom was shocked, “How can my only son be hospitalized?” That was exactly how April fool’s day went bad. ~ Prince.
I was fooled by someone a long time ago. Someone sent me a long message, I opened it to read and the content was painful. She said I told lies and sprayed ugly rumors about her in school to everyone. My heart was beating fast trying to recall what I ever did and trying to figure out who would accuse me of such bad deed. I was heart broken to hear such lies and very upset that I was ready to call her, until I read the final line of the text message which said “yo! You fell for it. Happy new month.” Mehnnnn…. It was a big relief. But since that day I found it difficult to ever believe anything anyone said to me on 1st April (April fools day) no matter how serious that thing is. hahaha ~ Ann
My Dad always warned me to stop pranking people because everyone knew i pranked people a lot. So on April fools day, five years ago, We were eating at the dinning while I was intentionally looking for how to prank them. While we were eating, they asked me to get cold water from the freezer. That was when I had an idea. As I was bringing out the water, I then pretended to touch the naked iron and began vibrating and shaking like someone that had been shocked by electricity. Everyone froze in shock. My dad raised his hand to his chest and became still. I was still shaking when I looked at my dad and immediately became scared for him. I stopped shaking and confessed to everyone that I was joking. Hey! My Elder sister walked up and slapped me across the face and warned me never to do such again. They rushed and got my Dad’s medication to calm him down. Damn! I felt cold that day. Afterwards, I promised never to fool anyone again. I learned my lesson. smiles ~ BM
I’m as shocked as you are by these April fools day stories. I mean, the jokes were out of this world, the pranks were intense and the effect was massive. But well, can you blame us? Thats what April fool is about. I’m sure you’ve engaged in one or two pranks before.
Feel free to steal some of these April fools day stories ideas to prank those around you but note that we would not be held responsible by the laughter, shock and heart ache your prank may cause. winks
From ChiQs Blog, I wish you a Happy new month filled with lots of laughter, good tidings and breakthrough. Cheers!
Share your last and present April fools day stories in the comment. Your thoughts and opinions on this post would be welcomed as well.
Growth. I am neither a goal setter nor an over the top planner. So I had nothing to smash in 2020. If I remember vividly, the only thing I wanted to do in 2020 was save more and have fun. Finish. laughs
Sounds funny right? Well, if you can see that as a goal then so be it.
Yet something happened. I woke up to a call that shook my world. And shaped my 2020 into a more daring and rocky one.
“Hello Chika.”
“Hi. Whats up?”
“We need to talk. Let’s talk on whatsapp.” He said worriedly. My web developer.
“Oh. Okay.” I became worried. Wondering if everything was alright. We came online and continued chatting.
“What’s wrong?” I asked inquisitively.
“I was doing my rounds. And I decided to just take a quick look at your site. Only for me to realize that your Bandwidth size is full. Thank God I noticed this or else your site would have crashed.” He sighed in relief. Everything he said just sounded strange to me. The thought of loosing my blog frightened me. My blog is my baby. Plus what the hell was bandwidth?
“Wait oh. Which one is bandwidth again?” I asked confusingly.
“Let’s just say its what takes in your blog traffic. The bigger the traffic, the bigger the bandwidth and vice versa”, he answered as I nodded in understanding “As of now, you need to increase your bandwidth size. Your blog has been having massive traffic.” He continued.
“Oh. That’s great.” I was happy. It was great news to me but somewhat weird since I didnt know how and why it happened. I never used to bother about checking my stats. I was happy with just doing what I loved and inspiring others in the process.
“Chika the fact is none of the sites I’ve ever developed have this much traffic. I’m truly proud”. He said warmly.
“Jeez. Are you serious?” At this point it had sank in. It felt so good. I felt at the top of the world, “Thank you so so much.” I said gratefully.
“How do you do it? He asked.
“Hmm…well, I just spend days writing valuable and relatable content. I give it my all.” I answered.
“Well done. Now, let’s get you a bigger size so that your site is safe as your traffic increases. The price differs and…
That conversation changed everything. I kept wondering why someone would take a glace at a silly girls world, and even go as far as reading her writings and following her journey immensely. Small Chika? It was humbling. It confirmed that i was doing something right. Something I enjoyed and loved. Something I gave my all. And if I kept giving I’d keep growing. So My 2020 became a cup of growth water. The more I gave the more I grew.
I didnt know how to keep up. I didnt want to loose so I made effort to grow. And to grow in the most important areas I needed to learn. Areas that benefited me. That I did.
I dished my plan to save more. I threw away everything that was like a standard. Every standard anyone or society had in place for the course of my journey and just focused on my growth. With that came more energy, more No’s, more sleepless night, more investments, more risks, and more selfishness. Yes. I was selfish. And it was needed. I wanted to focus on me and I’m glad I did.
This growth brought moments where I cried. Moments where other peoples view about my creativity hurt me badly. Especially the ones closest to me. Moments where I felt farther away from God. Moments where I was lonely. Damn! I was lonely a lot this year. So much so that I had conversations with my brain. smiles
I found things I didnt think I could do. Risks i didnt think i could take. The way I didnt think I could love. The passion I didnt think was burning in me for life, for people, for purpose, for God. And do you know the biggest irony to this? The more I took care of myself the more I brought others to myself. That is the power of self love. The more I loved myself, the more I loved people because loving myself means treating others with that same amount of love. I became more self aware about my self, body, and desires. I found community. A community of strangers that turned family. They made this growth possible. Calling me on my flaws, giving me the baddest reviews, driving me to tears and making me give more and more while pumping me with love.
I lived the most fulfilling in 2020 behind closed doors. On those silent night scribbling papers, listening to teachings, making mistakes in darkness, counting my losses, and daring to do things I wouldn’t do in normal circumstances. Doing the things my heart wanted.
I love that I’m silly. I love that I play too much, laugh too much, can be often unserious and I’m not going to change nothing about that. I adore me and adore God for making me live so freely. It didn’t happen by chance. It happened by choice. While the world may be changing themselves. I am going to take all of me, and all of you with me as we say goodbye to this year and welcome the next year with the same excitement, longing and subtle uncertainty because no matter what, we would embrace it, with its many chances, its many possibilities, its unending joy and survive. Survive we will. If my journey & my story that you have been a huge part of, doesn’t dare you to do that which seems frightening and unsettling then I believe that at least, it should inspire you to love you even in this moment, to grow without changing yourself and to share your story no matter how dark and daunting, how simple and weak and how shameful and painful it may sound.
I’d be lying if I told you I have goals for 2021. Wrong person guys. laughs I don’t have so don’t ask me. I’m moving with the flow. As long as I keep doing this then I’m good. But be rest assured that I’m a truck load of surprises. A lot of inspiring and sumptuous surprises are going to be coming your way as always.
While others my be counting their achievements I am rejoicing in my growth. Yet, my biggest achievement is YOU. YOU brought this growth. And I love and appreciate you so much.
Cheers to a hugely impactful 2021.
Anything is possible in the coming years. Read morehere
A captivating story resides here on one of my favorite blogs
Our featured guest writer this week is PRINCE JAMES
Prince James is a creative storyteller and podcaster whose life’s mission is to inspire millennials to find meaning in their life’s journey and tell their stories authentically.
The society we live in today tells us that we have no business influencing people with the stories of our lives until we have everything all figured and sorted out.
But he believes we’re the ones to make this change. We’d no longer have to wait to tell “perfect” stories. Instead, we’ll take pride in telling our “progress” stories. And together, we can inspire others to find meaning in their life’s journeys and tell their stories authentically.
He is the anchor of “Reality of Life life podcast” and a passionate creative building a community of fellow creatives.
Are you among those waiting for Bill Gates to one day, give you a shout-out for creating an app that beats Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter combined? What a defining moment that’d be, you say.
Most of you still define success as that singular event in you life that should be pursued. And for this reason, your eyes remain solely focused on the finish line alone.
But success isn’t all about the destination. It isn’t all about crossing the finish line. It’s also about every little step you take towards that line.
It’s about the direction you’re headed in your life’s journey, as opposed to “waiting till you get there.”
Today, millennials like you are waiting for defining moments before they can say “Mama, I made it.” We have learned wrongly from society to put our happiness on hold for “defining moments.”
But you forget that every day of your life presents to you, “defining moments.”
Every day, for instance, you get to choose between execution and procrastination.
So if today, you chose the former, good for you. Celebrate it. You won!
And if you didn’t, then that’s another defining moment for you because you get to choose between wallowing in guilt & picking yourself up again.
Every single step you take towards the finish line is a win in itself. And this could be in your quest to build a personal brand on social media, scale that business, or finish with better grades in school.
But while at it, you mustn’t see “crossing the finish line” as “the only defining moment” to look forward to. So understand that you’ll not “blow” only when you get that award or that amount of money and followership on the digital space.
If you pay attention to your life’s journey, you’ll realize that you “blow” every single day of your life.
So what is a defining moment?
Let’s cite a few instances, shall we?
You were supposed to write that blog post yesterday, but you procrastinated. Now that was a defining moment right there.
You were supposed to create that video, but you held yourself back because you felt you weren’t good enough for your voice to be heard. That’s another defining moment you let go off.
But what if you did otherwise? What if, instead of procrastinating, you stepped up to the occasion? What if you faced your fears today & instead of cringing, you released your God-given potential?
Isn’t that a defining moment right there? So why aren’t you celebrating it?
Look, I know…I know that people in the society today, in a bid to sound comforting, tell you and I to celebrate the small wins while looking forward to the big ones.
But I think you get to determine for yourself, what is big, and what is small. Perhaps, you could stop categorizing your wins altogether.
I mean, just because your achievements “seem” little in the eyes of others, doesn’t make it small, does it?
So…All you do is WIN–waking up early, strong & cheerful, brushing early, taking that long walk & feeling better equipped for the day ahead, calling that friend you’ve been scared to call because you’ve absconded for a while, creating content after procrastinating for two weeks, etc.
You see? You win every day and in every detail of your life.
The instances above may readily seem trivial to you, but the point is that you don’t have to wait for those “grass-to-grace” stories before you know that you’re making progress.
“Success stories” may give you something to “aspire to” but “progress stories” connect with the “everyday people” in a personal way, showing you that you aren’t alone in “this thing called life.”
Your stories may be imperfect, but they’re valid, still. So own them. You can find meaning in your individual journey and tell your story authentically.
Constantly comparing yourself to others.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong in having role models. But it can take its toll on you when you start seeing their lives as standards to match up with.
I remember earlier this year when I discovered that the filmmaker who shot the “mafo” video for “Naira Marley” was my classmate in secondary school. I was amazed…in a good way, of course.
I was like, “wow…this guy is killing it, etc.” But something happened along the line. I noticed how, “subconsciously,” I started telling myself that I wasn’t doing enough!
To make things worse for me, Naya, the filmmaker, gave a shout-out to another classmate of mine (the same set), who produced the beat for Fire boy in that popular song titled “vibration.”
I was happy for both of them, quite alright. But the problem again was that I started to compare myself to them.
It only made sense to me that being in the same class & age bracket with them, I may not have maximized all the opportunities that life has brought my way, at least, not in the way that they have.
Now, I admit that watching them thrive in the creative industry, motivated me in some kind of way, showing me that I wasn’t too young to do big things.
However, I had to unfollow them for a while, not because they weren’t worth following, but because I struggled to be inspired by their work without simultaneously comparing myself to them.
So in my quest to build emotional capacity to balance both, I had to first take my eyes off them. This helped me in two ways:
I stopped trying to out-pace myself. I stopped the narrative playing in my head, the narrative of “time is not on your side, what are you doing with your life?”
I stopped trying to prove to myself & others, that I was “equally” capable of doing “great creative work.”
Now, this here, is what I call freedom.
You see? When you take your eyes off the people you’ve placed on pedestals, you become free to chase your own dreams and not that of others.
This way, you stop trying to succeed in the exact same way that your role models have succeeded.
For instance, if your role model made his or her first million at 23, you shouldn’t hold yourself to ransom, insisting that it “must” be the same for you.
Should you be inspired by the achievements of others? Of course, absolutely! But you have to be careful not to feel intimidated or pressured to hit the same goals, the same way.
We all want to win in life…I get it. But you’ll always have problems when you measure your success, using the yardstick of others. Rather learn to find meaning in your individual journey and own your progress story.
That role model of yours that you’ve placed on a pedestal may be racing against his or her last month’s goal of a million followers, but your last month’s goal may have been to “start” a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel. And if you hit that goal, that’s progress. Own it!
Stop looking away from the progress you are making. Look at your life 3 months ago, 6 months ago, and a year ago. And you’ll see how much progress you’ve made yourself. Celebrate it because you’ve “blown.”
But if you keep comparing yourself to others, you’ll always believe that you are yet to “blow.”
You see this blog post you’ve been reading, it’s my very first blog feature! And if you ask me, I can tell you categorically, that I’ve “blown!”
So ask yourself: “Should I still chase this idea of blowing ‘one day’ like my role models? Or should I start normalizing the concept of blowing ‘every day’?”
Once again, remember that you can all find meaning in your individual journey and tell your story authentically.
You insist that life “must” go as planned.
The story is told of a dreamer boy named Joseph. (He died 1445 BC.)
Earlier on in his life, he would often see himself making a global impact as a ruler. But there was a twist to it, and like many of us today, he didn’t know what he’d have to go through, on his journey to attaining global relevance.
Many of you have been taught to have your life all planned out as though you’re in “total control” of its outcome.
But life will not happen to everyone the same way. And this is a truth that a lot of millennials are unwilling to accept.
Joseph, according to the biblical narrative, was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, after which he got into prison, being falsely accused of rape.
As many know, he was later released and appointed the highest official in Ancient Egypt to serve the pharaoh.
Now, do you realize that his journey wasn’t smooth at all?
Honestly, it’s a beautiful thing to have goals, dreams & ambitions. (It makes you feel like we have your life under control.)
But what happens when the reality of life hits different? Many start to feel less confident in who they are and what they’re worth.
Truth is, no one in this world has an organized life. It’s a façade. It’s only a fantasy that you and I uphold in our hearts & minds.
Life, many times, can be turbulent. So turbulent that it’ll take only God to keep you sane.
Please note that I’m not advocating against having plans for the future.
At age 17, I was told to have a “vision board.”
So I wrote that I’ll be a graduate at 21, finish NYSC at 22, get a job at 23, and quit at 25 after raising capital to start my company.
But guess what?
My dad passed on 3 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days after my 18th birthday.
Tragic, isn’t it?
Both my junior sister and I were in private institutions.
Now you see why I was so confident about having B.sc at 21?
Private universities don’t go on strike. *laughs*
So I was in year 3, studying a 5-year course, while my sister was in year 2, studying a 4-year course.
Long story short, I had to step down for my sister to continue schooling.
I later enrolled in a state university where I currently study. And it’s just two days to my 24th birthday, as at the time of writing this.
My lovely friend, Chika, calls it “the best plot twist of all time; life.”
After a series of battles, trying to make my vision board come to fruition, I eventually gave up. I realized how pointless it was, pushing against the current. And to my surprise, that’s when life started to turn out beautifully.
I’m so grateful to God for the kind of people and opportunities that have come my way thus far. And sincerely, I don’t think all that would have been possible if my Dad was still around.
This is because my dad was really protective. Hence the reason he sent me to a private school. And to be honest, my life had been “private” for the larger part of my existence…until his demise.
So although it once felt like the world was going to come to an end, in retrospect, I can now say that it was just a blessing in disguise.
The moral of the story is that you don’t always have to fight against the wind. You don’t have to always move against the current.
You also don’t have to “wait” till the wind or turbulence stops. A lot of millennials are indeed putting their lives on hold because they’re waiting for the storms to be over before they tell their stories of victory.
But if it was a victory all the way, what do you think would have become of Joseph’s story? Wouldn’t it sound so boring, no matter who was telling it?
I can’t wait to connect with y’all. Please share your thoughts in the comment
