Time Thief

I went away from my home for two days to rest and organize my head and my books and journals. I wanted to be physically and mentally ready for when I resumed work on Monday the 6^th day of January 2025.

I spent too much of the time resting, sleeping, looking through my phone and eating. It suddenly dawned on me that my time there would be ending pretty soon, so I buckled up and went to sit at the desk where all of my things had been scattered from my previous attempt to organize and write something.

I sat at the desk at 8:30pm and by 9:25pm I had sorted my to do list for the week, organized my journals and labeled them. I decided to check and use some journaling videos I had saved on Pinterest  and so I picked up my phone to check them out. Just as I picked the phone up, I saw a notification from google photos about some memories from five years ago. I spent at least six or seven minutes there, smiling at every memory and even taking the time to share some of them the people who were in them.

As I tried to navigate out of WhatsApp, where I had shared some of these memories, I saw some messages on our family group, so I decided to check them out. There were a number of messages, but one caught me, my brother shared that he had just lost a friend and he mentioned the name. the name seemed familiar and so I went to Facebook, to check if he was someone I knew.

I opened my Facebook application and I saw a video I liked about the challenges of Nigerian businesses caused by horrible power supply. One video led to another, and another. Next thing I know, I’m looking at Facebook stories. How did i get there? Somehow, I was able to get myself to snap out of it. Just as I left the app, I remembered why I went there in the first place… I didn’t go back.

I went to Pinterest, just as I  had previously intended, my main reason for picking up my phone in the first place. Immediately I got in, I saw a Gilmore girls aesthetic photo and I clicked…next thing I know, it’s twenty minutes later and I am looking at different ways to make paper flowers. I don’t know how that happened but I do know one thing, the distraction that comes with a mobile phone in hand is second to none.

I went and put my phone away… in another room.