SERVICE AND MOI

Once upon a time, yours truly always dreamed of the day someone would hail her and say ''Corper Shun''. Now that time is here and it feels really great, awesooome. The thought of wearing my white shirt & khaki trousers to my cds venue every Tuesday gives a thrill. Don't get my excitement twisted to be some new-found thingy. I'm not a 'johnny-just-come' corper, been in the service game (yeah I said it, service game.lol) for close to 7 months now. It's just once again, my thoughts are swirling from the moment I entered camp to me sitting in the office typing away this words of mine.

Camp life was ooh-so-memorable, I acted as an hausa lady in a drama competition between platoons. Yeah, OddNaijaChic acted for her platoon. Me? Acting? I had to put on the hausa accent and that was hilarious. I couldn't do it with a straight face (didn't laugh though). Picture this: ''My husband, what haffened? Wallahi, this is too much for me to bear. Gaskiya ne.......'' Something like that. I hope it wasn't because of me that my platoon lost. Another thing I did that brings a smile to my face whenever I think of it is me wearing the whole Fulani regalia and dancing as a Fulani lady. I still sing the songs to myself and my sisters will be like ''Oh God, not the song again''. Something else that struck me as funny was that ninety percent of the dudes that approached me in camp were Igbo guys with their fantastic Igbo accents ''Ha fa na, beh-beh''. Hahaha.

The downside of it all was that as fit as I thought I was, those rude awakenings in the morning and jogging round, marching, rigorous exercises took a big toll on my body. Backaches worse than that of a rheumatism patient, literally!!! It wasn't funny mehn. I wished to have a complete day rest but none came. I wasn't even bold enough to dodge a day's workout, you know, hiding somewhere in the dorms away from all those intruding soldiers. I made good friends there but the sad thing is after camp, we were posted to different regions and I haven't seen some of 'em till now even though we do the occasional chats and calls.

Fast-forward all that to now. I have got 2 amazing corper friends in my office that I think are worth keeping for a lifetime. Let's call them Mo' (no, not moments with Mo' oo) and Pie (short form of her name; not meat pie or fruit pie). I mean everyday is a new experience with them. They are really amazing. Mo' is got this bubbly fun side and her facial expressions when she speaks are Oscar-worthy. No kidding. I never frown when i'm with her. Pie is more like all these advice columnists in the papers (Talk to Aunty this, that) and she's got a good heart, quiet too but always game for a good chat. Well, this is me sitting in the office smiling as I think about all these memories of service I'll take with me till I grow old sitting on a rocking chair, giving my grandkids tidbits of my service days.

A lurking thought flashes in my head that I'm gonna finish soon, this June. I'm gonna miss service, no doubt. The question now is What next? What lies ahead for me? What do I make of it? That's talk for another day dearies. This is Corper OddNaijaChic signing out but I'll be back (In Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice)...