My Cloud Atlas

Well you don't have to trust this, but life is not a bad joke. In my seventeen years of existence and six years of truly living and being alive, I've come to terms with one basic fact which can be stated succinctly, "the meaning of life is different for everyone".
Being an extroverted loner, I have no problem making friends or being social, but often choose to be alone when i'm not working, not because of insecurity or fear but because it's just me in all my imperfect glory enjoying my own company. I spend quality time with lots of friends; but I won't shy away from saying "NO" when an afternoon/night in by myself sounds better than an afternoon/night out at any gathering, and I won't be apologetic about it, my pals can affirm that.
There are basic factors or should I say help mates who make this an enjoyable ride.

Music  _This is really my escape. If music were to be a lady, I would Love her to her bones.  It serves as the connection between all living beings. This is the therapy my mind sometimes needs to attain that state of homeostasis. Being an early bird, I wake up at 4am, I plug my earpiece jack into my phone's port and its buds in my ears, eyes shut and I drift off to the "SOUND OF MUSIC" till the early hours of the morning, giving me harmonic dreams. Some years back, my playlist was based on genres especially Country, dominated by Don Williams. Then drifted from genres to individual artists such as Asa (this lady gives me goosebumps, no, not her, her music), Brymo, Adekunle Gold, Timi Dakolo and a host of like minded musicians.
On the foreign scene, the likes of Passenger, Sia, Ed Sheeran, Adele and James Blunt dominates.
Then, the Gospel artists make me get in touch with divinity, I don't really have a preference, just give me that highness I would not get even if I attempt taking narcotics.
More recently I delved into symphonies of composers like Mozart, Handel and Beethoven. Symphony is purely the blending of souls.

Books  _Just like music is the blending of souls, a book is also the convergence of minds. @Robin Sharma said,  some books are meant to be tasted, some chewed, some swallowed. Do I read just any book? No, i don't, its more like fighting selective battles, because the mind is delicate, you shouldn't feed it with junks. A friend of mine said it better in one of our conversations, she pointed out that she can make do with romance films but not romance books because they get stuck to her mind, the images keeps popping up.
For me, the Bible remains the best book ever written. The books of proverbs, ecclesiastes, Luke and Thessalonians remain my best sections.
I read an article recently stating the best ten books written in the twentieth century picked by famous authors and when I checked the list I discovered I've read none. I thought I had read a good number of books, this people want to floor me but no,  they can't stop my shine  . Will I do something about that? Affirmative.
P.S(i): I think everybody should try fiction, I'm not saying jettison the motivational or spiritual books, the world is too rigid. Paulo Coelho's_The Alchemist might be a good start. Our planet hosts myriad of good story tellers. Just make your mind travel via the imaginative power from reading a good book.

Movies  _No preference, just tell me a good story and don't play on my intelligence like some Nollywood movies. Gbam!

Writing✍_Styles change but smart remains smart. I read that timidity/shyness affects the voice if held unto for a long period of time. In my case it lasted for seventeen years until I was introduced to the sound of my own voice via mini class presentations. When I was an undergraduate, giving presentations wasn't a hard nut to crack, I would always prepare and deliver but at the end, some class mates (especially those seated at the rear) would tell me they struggled to hear me even though they tried to listen. My voice doesn't peak. I've got a heart as loud as a Lion and I won't let my voice be tamed. I'm working on this...
I took to expressive writing, I pour my heart out on paper, in this case, I "think" on this medium, and take my readers on a sojourn. Thank God undergraduate exams are written and not verbal, so my teachers/lecturers can actually, "read my mind in ink". You really want to know how I feel in the recess of my heart or fibres of my brain? Give me pen and paper or a note pad. @Subomiplumptre.com wrote an article on writing; just write, make an attempt, write, you wouldn't know you can.

Nature  _Wake up in the morning, the sky is clearer, trees green, animals conjugate, birds chirping, rain's smell, seas blue, even our heart beat has a rhythm. All these fascinates me and gives my life serenity. All these I didn't get in my part of Lagos - Bariga, because of its hustle, bustle and bickering here and there. Ogun state holds these in its rich glory, I schooled there, so I know, except the sea part.

Teaching  _This is the true test of comprehension. The feeling you get after explaining a concept to a child and the child expresses the application of what has been taught to kill the menace called ignorance. This is the simple art of teaching.
Teaching gives me joy especially when the students are practically involved and not to see them as an empty vessel waiting to be filled but as body that has a soul and spirit trapped in waiting to be set free.
Education comes from the word "Educere" which means to "Bring out", they already have the darkness, the oil and match sticks, make them ignite the light.
P.S(ii): Michaelangelo said, I saw an Angel in the marble and I carved until I set it free. It's in them already. They've got the light to fight the shadow.

Travelling      _This is one of the spontaneous things I like doing. It gives me a breath of fresh air, a sense of place and being lost in time all in a package. Sometimes alone, "you just have to put yourself first at times". I've not even been to one quarter of the states in my country Nigeria but I really want to see Paris, The Bahamas, Burj Khalifa in U.A.E and The Island of Malta. I have read too much about these places na☹.

Visual Art works    ‍    _In one of my rummaging some years back, I stumbled on Picasso, Michaelangelo and Da Vinci. Their architectures, paintings and drawings still illuminate my imagination. Are their brains wired differently? How do they imagine those paintings and give them life? Did they read about them in books first? Leonardo Da Vinci painted Mona Lisa and till today, no one can determine her facial expression? I see art works of artists around and I'm like, this is genius. Photography is an aspect of visual art works that leave a ding in my mind in recent times especially human unawares by a good photographer or even wild life photography.
P.S(iii): I also think Footballers are Artists too. You don't think so? Watch Lionel Messi, Neymar or More recently Marco Asensio dribble past opposition defenders, it's like a painter's brush on a canvas. Magnificent!

We're all like horses on blinds each running its own race, you only get one life (whether for rent or for sale) and it's your duty to live it as fully as possible, hence my epistle.

P.S: This piece isn't about idealism, it's an inkling into life's ocean as I currently swim with or sometimes against the tide, till my paradigm shift occurs, this is a fraction of my canvas; My Cloud Atlas.
✍
Ogunlana A. Owolabi