5 of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received

I don't know how to write these types of writing. Tbh, I have never written anything giving direct access to a subject I consider personal as the one above. At any rate, I'm going to try to make this sound both personal and a little bit detached.

People don't buy me stuff. But on the instances they did get me stuff, I found those things particularly useful.

Why did I find those things useful? Because they were things I needed at that point.

Putting this list together didn’t take me much time as I thought it would. Lol.

So, e be the list I put below:

A pair of sneakers

I got this from Cheta. I consider this pair of sneakers the most important gift I’ve ever received from anyone in my life. It came at a time I was obsessed with originals. Every time, I’d surf ecommerce sites for really cheap sneakers and be disappointed time again. One random day, I’d wake up from sleep and find a message from Cheta: the Asics Gel Lyte III he sent will help me do fine boy until I finished university.

Cash gift

It came from Dr. Kadiri. Unannounced. I'd travelled 21-hour for a job interview. Booked hotel and did one or two more boys things. I sat at the mouth of my hotel room bed to check account. The maths wasn't adding up. If I managed to get back to my base — another 21-hour trip — I'd suffer for food and other things until my remote gig paid month end. I woke up in the morning to find an email from my bank. Able God! I lived on that money until month end.

A pair of socks

My sister, who I don't name or have refused to acknowledge on the internet because privacy, got me the pair of socks. I had always worried that one day they'd say pull your shoes and my poverty would reveal itself. But that fear died when my sister pop in my room one day and said “I was coming from the stadium. I got you this.” Tears, people! I wore the socks immediately after she left and never pulled it, unless for baffs!

A photograph print

I met the legendary artist, Oluwamuyiwa Logor’ — around the last quarter of 2016. I had been following his works since the nascent stage of his career. His career had grown remarkably and I couldn’t afford any of his works. But I desired them. Logor' gave me a print of one of his works — off the #MonochromeLagos project.

Man Under Third Mainland Bridge.

He signed it! And yes, it’s one of my most valuable possessions. I’m planning to take it to the bank for safekeeping soon; to protect it from any form of damage.

Music albums

My favourite, Brymo handed me signed copies of his albums, Tabula Rasa and Merchants, Dealers & Slaves. Those two albums are the only signed copies of a musician’s work I ever got. Even right now as I’m writing this — the albums follow me everywhere.

Honourable mention

Lol. One day, in the club someone spilt Amarula on my A78s. I pulled the person by the arm and said “this shit costs a couple of dollars!” Lmao! I’ve never held any dollar note in my life, mind you. Ochi got me those polos and shirts at a time I was planning to enter Yaba to go select (in preparation for final session). I’d toast plenty girls in those clothes and I’m still toasting girls with them.

Why do these things mean a lot? Because they didn’t ask “should I get you this?” Or “should I buy this thing for you?” Or “what do you like?” They seem to just look at me and saw through my struggles, discerning the best gift for me. A superpower. These people are superpeople.

On one curious spell, I found out Cheta got me those sneakers from my Pinterest & WhatsApp likes. My sister saw that there were no socks in my sneakers, so she got me one. Dr Kadiri put two & two together and said yo, the trip is likely going to mess the guy’s pocket up and intervened just at the right time. Perhaps, the most perceptive reason I loved the circumstances I got these gifts from was the lack of prior expectations. If they had said, for example, “Do you like it in blue or black?” And I answered that I wanted black, but circumstances happened and they didn’t get it for me I’d be disappointed. Even greater, feel resentment for them. Because, I was sitting jeje and you come and ask me that thing.

As a rule, I’m trying to be a good gift-er too. These days, for people I really like, I look out for the things they like on Pinterest (my go-to place), WhatsApp Status, Instagram Story, Facebook or the things they talk about most in my conversations with them. For my most recent act, Pinterest was very useful, because I got the exact size of the pata right, if you know what I mean.😎

I hope to write a sequel to this post soon. DV.