the apartment complex that shaped my life

caption: this is literally a picture of the courtyard where i grew up from ages 8 to 13 at the Willowtree Apartment complex on Plymouth Road, in Ann Arbor Michigan.

my parents are brave and incredible people. we lived under the Federal Poverty Line for several years after moving to the States in 1997. things were not easy, but as far as i knew, we lived in Beverly Hills. my dad had to re-train again as a physician, because his UK and Nigerian credentials were not honored at the University of Michigan Medical Center, where he worked. so, he went through medical training for a THIRD time in Ann Arbor. i remember my dad riding a bike 5 miles to and from work everyday in the blistering cold, so that my Mum could use our only car (the red Ford Festiva below) to take care of us, go to school, and run errands during the day. my Uncle Bola sold my parents that car for $300 when we first arrived so we'd be able to get around. we wouldn't have been able to afford a car otherwise. thank you, Uncle Bola, for that, and for all the ways you welcomed us and softened our landing in what can be a truly unforgiving country for new immigrants.

i learned so much about life, struggle, joy and contentment from watching my parents traverse our early years in the States. we didn't have much money at all, but we were never poor. we were wealthy in all the ways that mattered. we had faithful friends (new and old), we had tasty food every night (my darling Mum made each discount meal with unreserved love), our tiny apartment was always neat, glistening and overpouring with the smell of fresh Glade air freshener (my wonderful dad cleaned our apartment each Saturday the way he does everything - as though his life depended upon it). we had LOVE. that real love.

every night we would sit on the floor together, or on our second-hand furniture (which we found next to the dumpster when we first moved in at Willowtree) at watch our favorite sitcoms together as a family to wash off the day and realign and rejuvenate together to get ready to face another day in this strange new place we'd decided to make home. thank you Family Matters, Mama's Family and Roseanne for teaching us about American culture from the safety and warmth of our apartment each evening.

so much of who i am came from the thousands of hours i spent playing with my brother, Tomi, and our rag-tag crew of latchkey apartment-dwelling friends at the Willowtree Apartment complex. although we always dreamed about having a home with more than one level, or having our own room and personal backyard, in all truth, i don't think we would've traded our Willowtree set-up for the world. we roamed free from courtyard to courtyard, picking up new friends, welcoming kids who had just moved in, terrorizing the neighborhood pool, sledding down every hill we could find (small and large, alike), and feeding the geese at the world-famous Willowtree pond (please see below for real pictures of the the 9th wonder of the world).

caption: this body of water used to feel like the Atlantic Ocean to me.

i don't know where i'm going with this. i guess i'm just grateful for my childhood, my parents, my brother, the beautiful struggle and God's faithful watch. it hasn't always been easy, but as I turned 32 this week, it became clear to me that "easy" is overrated. life's beauty, and the joy it produces, transcends temporary states or conditions. it lives at the universal layer as a gift to all of us, and can be accessed by all: young, old, rich and poor. it's totally free.

term of the day: suffering. this word is often confused as a synonym for "pain." it's not. pain is physical, suffering is psychological. pain is a physical reality. it's only relationship to suffering is in one's mind. i'm learning to cut the chord.

song of the day: WUSYANAME by Tyler the Creator. i want to live in this video, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJea386275c