This might be the last letter for the year. Except I find something else in my life I feel would do great as letter content. Knowing me, that is a distinct possibility. Until then though, take this as the last letter.

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Everything ends. You should know that.

Shows, Books, Movies, and even Life end at one point or another. Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death in the adaptation of the Neil Gaiman comics, The Sandman, said,

"When the first living thing existed, I was there waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave."

And as we go into December, I'm reminded that this year is about to end. Like everybody who this year showed shege, all I want is to end the year on a soft note, or as this Twitter user tweeted -

Happy endings are the staple of fiction - at least the fiction I consume. If there's a "Once upon a time", there'd definitely be a "And they lived happily ever after. The End." The predictability of happy endings is what draws me into stories and movies. I'm moving away from the point, but you get my point, right?

A fan fiction I started reading seven years ago came to an end about 4 months ago. I saw the notification; I didn't read it until yesterday because I didn't have the mental fortitude to deal with that part of my life ending. That was the last story on that site that was still ongoing. For context, I've been reading fanfiction since my early teens; I'm currently in my early twenties, and consuming literature in that form has shaped how I view words. Some of my very best quotes have come from fan fiction writers who speak English as a second language.

I still read fan fiction, but I've graduated from reading on Quotev and fanfic.net to ao3. My point? I started reading "May the Wind be at your back" when it was 3 chapters in, and the author was a struggling middle schooler the same age as I was. Now, Vera is about to finish college, and she still hasn't figured out how to use Instagram lol. It feels like that chapter of my life has fully closed. "Never Moderation Knew", the second book of "May the Wind be at your back", was the last book I still went to Quotev to check if there have been updates. I'll still go back to the site; obviously, there are gems that I can't seem to find the like on other sites, but for the point of it, I'm done with Quotev.

It feels weird getting older. And having things end. It's a feeling I'm not accustomed to navigating through but I'm choosing to believe that with each ending, comes a new and beautiful beginning. The story doesn't end with "The End." even in death.

2022 might be ending, but there's 2023. And 2024, and until the Earth decides to stop rotating, there'd be years and years after that. Having a happy ending is something that might be overrated but with all the things we go through as humans, holding on to that shred of hope might be what gets us out of the trenches. Or not. Who knows?

On Life.

I'm on vacation. At least, that's what I like to tell myself. How can I go on vacation while unemployed, you ask? Well, I never claimed to have common sense, did I? The good city of Lagos has shown me different shades of suffering, but I'm pushing through, you know. I'm reflecting on all the things I did this year that were less than stellar and the things I did that were positively mind-blowing. I'll let you know how that goes.

So far, I've seen three of my favourite people, eaten cake and attended two events in one day. And it's only day 6 of this vacation. I'm in for a long ride.

On Books.

One beautiful day, I spilled thoughts on the internet.

Shout out to Yinka, I now have four more books to add to my collection. He left me unsupervised and I came back with ten books that we had to sort in order of priority but oh well, at least I have books! I just started reading Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis, and I already like the main character, Olive.

On Music.

The love of my life - Kim Namjoon of BTS is dropping his debut solo album by 6am tomorrow. Indigo already has a special place in my heart because Joon made it. I genuinely believe that music is a vehicle to carry you to places you've never been and I have no doubt that Joon will do just that to me. I look forward to Indigo.

In the meantime, there's nothing like reading a romance book with love songs playing in the background. This is my favourite YouTube playlist.

Lemonade.

Lagos in December is my Lemonade. It's expensive as hell. It's overrated and it's hot and there's so much traffic but there's so much happening everywhere in this city that it's really and truly alive.

Till next time, or maybe next year,

Zia.