About 50 Unread messages from one of my Alumni groups (NCCF 2002 set a.k.a Joshua Generation). “Not much to catch up on”, I thought. So I decided to spend about 5 minutes to read through.

Someone was recently added to the group and he was being welcomed.

Typically.

I joined others to welcome him. It’d been a while. Specifically, it’d been 20years. He sent a picture of how he now looked. I instantly recognized and remembered him. Ofcourse, besides the fact that he had gotten chubbier, he was pretty much the same. I Wondered what he had been up to. I wondered what experiences he had bagged.

You couldn’t tell a thing from the way he looked.

Feelings of nostalgia came rushing in.

20years ago, I served my country.

My call-up letter read: Adamawa State. I was eagerly looking forward to going. I wondered what living in the North would be like. Before then, I had only visited some places – Abuja, Zaria – where I had barely spent a few weeks.

To Adamawa I went.

I remember the journey: by air and by road.

I remember some faces of other corp members as they made their way to the Camp.

I remember Mammy market, the food, the living conditions on camp.

I remember the exercises and trainings.

I remember my place of primary assignment – Central Bank, Yola.

I remember the core staff and other serving corps.

I remember NCCF family house, the choir and other church units.

I remember the concerts, the community project I set up, the schools and ministries.

I remember singing, dancing, commuting.

There’s a lot about that time of my life that I remember.

The most important element of that time in my life were the !

People give life to our memories.

People give meaning to many of our experiences.

People give colour to our lives.

The exact shade, hue, mix, opacity or intensity may differ person to person but the canvas of our lives are full of them.

How can I Forget the many times I was helped by locals, other visitors and foreigners alike? How can I forget the beautiful relationships that budded from those times? How can I forget the teachings and learnings from various persons and platforms?

Today, I .

To you and you, let’s fill our time together with beautiful, valuable memories. Life is too long to live with regrets, and too short to not live each day purposefully.

I will R͢E͢M͢E͢M͢B͢E͢R͢ ͢N͢O͢T͢ ͢T͢O͢ ͢F͢O͢R͢G͢E͢T͢

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