I have always been a sucker for love stories. I mean what’s not to love about love. However, along the line, I became averse to love (read as “became hard guy”) because what I thought love was didn’t quite look like the expressions I saw around me. Society kinda made it look like love was basic, and somewhere within me, I knew that wasn’t true. So, a way to deal with it was to pretty much lock it all away.

This remained my ideology for most part of my years in the University – even up until the time Ayo came around. So, I had crossed to the Faculty of Law after my first year in the University of Ibadan. Being the newbie, it took a second while to fully settle into the rhythms of being a law student. On one of those days, I vividly remember Ayo following me to one of the ICT centres to complete the transfer process. In all honesty, I was fine doing it alone because hard guy and independent woman won’t let me breathe (looool) + it was really my cross. I didn’t think much of it because I knew and still know that there are kind people in this life and that was that.

Fast forward to being a law student, Ayo and some of his class friends would mostly sit behind us (Tobi Elujulo and I) for classes we took in the Faculty’s large lecture theatre. On a good number of occasions, Ayo would tug at my braided wig. I remember him being genuinely amazed when he realized it was a wig. All the while, I guess I was mostly tolerating this guy because my default setting was to cancel any guy that tried to come my way. Besides, being a law student required more than attending classes in the tom tom uniform. I had to work on getting my grades right.

By the fifth year, my focus was to finish with even better grades and ace my dissertation (which both happened, by the way 😊). It was somewhere in between studying for final exams that Ayo‘s face became more popular to me. We would walk together to go get lunch after some hours of study in the University’s library. This continued for most part of studying for final exams until he told me how he felt. Recall that my default setting was to cancel anybody that tried to do anyhow? Ayo did not get cancelled. He went on to become my boyfriend some months after and here we are in what is the most beautiful story ever, written by the inventor of love Himself. We just get to be characters in this, at the end of the day.

PS: Safe to say my idea of love was valid all the while, it only took God bringing Ayo my way to see it the way it ought to be seen. 😊