Once upon a time real-life stories by was-once-teenagers

A few days back, we at kidsnaija, sent out a form link. We asked people to anonymously share stories from their teenage years and they did. The goal is to remind today’s teens that they aren’t alone and well, no one word can best describe teenagehood for everybody.

Interested in sharing your story with us? Then send us an anonymous message.

A crush on a secondary school teacher.

So I remember this one time I had a crush on my secondary school teacher. It felt really nice to connect to a mature person in school and who somewhat in return cares about you too. But oh well, it didn’t take long to find out that the teacher was in a relationship with one of my seniors. I cared less though.

I just really like the teacher and if possible, grow up and have something to do with him in the future. He talks well and is smart. Umm, before I left secondary school though, my senior was pregnant for him and they had a child together. Such beautiful couple!

Looking back at those times and how everything played out, I realised that sometimes in life we desire something so much without knowing the implications and time exposes certain things and damn! It dawns on you that you really never needed what you wanted and it would be such a pain chasing the cutlass with your hands that’s meant to cut that same arm!

Point is, teenagehood is such a beautiful experience in life but while enjoying those moments and doing the sweet crazy things in life, thinking of the future and implications of our actions should be a sure guideline.

Joining a fellowship if it means seeing a fine man.

As a teen, I once joined a fellowship because I had a crush on the head pastor. LOL. Now that I think of it, that was pretty darn stupid.

But hey, your teen years should be your most ‘foolish’ years. That’s the time to get out all the silliness inside of you, so you don’t make such blunders as an adult. It’s ok to be silly, just as long as you don’t throw your safety and health to the wind. It’s a hard world out there and you’re the only one who can look out for you.

A failed greenlight moment.

I almost got into my first romantic relationship at 16, as an SS2 student. It was during one of the long holiday lesson (I don’t know what they call summer lessons abeg). How did I get her attention? I didn’t even try to. An exercise on Lexis and Structure did it for me.

Out of a class of about 50 people, I was the only one who got all the questions right. The English tutor made sure to announce that to the class. He called out my name from my script and told everyone I had scored a hundred percent. Even then, I knew something changed after the announcement. Other students paid attention when I spoke.

The girls asked for my note if someone wiped the blackboard before they were through. Then there was this fair, pretty girl with a nice voice who did more than that. She pulled me into her discussions with her friends, centered her jokes around me, glanced my way a lot when she thought I wasn’t looking. I noticed and my heart fluttered.

Just when I made the decision that I’d do something, I fell sick. I was so sick that I could not continue with the classes. While I battled with the sickness at home, I could not help but imagine what could have been.

I’d meet her by chance, months later, somewhere downtown. She’d call me multiple times before I’d hear her and turn and smile. Then she’d ask why I stopped classes and I’d tell her I fell sick. Then there would be that brief pause during which she’d toy with her phone. I’d interpret it as the greenlight to ask for her phone number.

But I would not, because I didn’t have a phone. Besides, romantic relationships were a sin in our family and even if I could keep it away from my parents, I couldn’t bring myself to disregard them.

Teen years can be boring.

I can’t even believe I’m no longer a teenager because my teenage years moved really fast but what I can say is that it was really boring. Yeah, I did make friends but still felt this loneliness.

Shyness took the better part of me. Lol. Yeah, I usually blame it on the fact that I’m fat. Well, my family didn’t help matters, but I’m still very much happy I could spend little quality time with family and friends.

Sometimes, flee like Joseph

I was a timid and quiet girl in my teens and I was a little-goody-two-shoes and loved to stand what is right in God’s sight and this has stuck with me till now. But it had its disadvantages where people always wanted to ride over me.

I can remember when I went to a party, it was fun but they started games and I wasn’t comfortable with it, I ran away and everyone laughed for quite a long time but I stuck my guns and today I am standing strong because of these principles. However, I would tell you this, it’s not easy but with your willpower and Jesus, you will keep rocking. Peace.

Excuse me but is your jollof sweeter than your mum’s?

I have a lot of funny memories of my childhood. But the one that always cracks me up was the day I decided to show my mum that I am a grownup, that I can cook like she does or even better.

So on that day, mum was out, so I decided to make jollof rice, now I didn’t know the exact portion you pour in a pot to get a full pot of rice so I poured rice up to half of the pot. Not knowing the rice would rise when you cook it. Lemme shaa leave out the whole process I took but d rice did not get done and the pot was full already.

Now I thought I did everything correctly so I wasn’t bothered when I served the food to mum. The way that woman shouted JESUS like I just murdered someone, I was scared, then she rushed to d kitchen (I had messed the place up)

Now, this is how mum use to flog, she would lock the doors and flog u around the room knowing your hands would not reach the bolts. After the flogging, I was angry, I left my house thinking my mum would miss me and look for me like in the movies I saw that period but nothing happened. In the evening, I came back home as I got very hungry.

Slobbery, wet, and generally ugh

I think I’d do my first kiss – I was 17 and pretty proud of the fact that I’d never kissed anyone at that point (so yes, teens, it’s perfectly okay). I was done with secondary school but hadn’t gotten admission to uni yet so I was at home.

There was this neighbour who thought I was awesome and that there was no one quite like me (he still thinks that) and so he got my number from someone and chatted me up. So we got talking. After my parents left for work and my siblings to school, I’d go see this guy somewhere until I decided that he was harmless enough to invite into the house.

So one day I did and I think we both knew somehow that the kiss was gonna happen. So he entered the house, I offered a couple of refreshments. Then we cuddled up and he asked me to sit on his lap, I did, then we kissed. And nothing happened.

It was slobbery and wet and generally ugh but I didn’t regret it. I liked the guy at the time and I was happy to have passed that milestone and I was sure future kisses would be lit. They weren’t, but that only pushed me to be the best kisser I could possibly be. And guess what? All my boyfriends after him were thankful for that. The end

The Gist

And that’s a wrap for the first part! There are more stories to watch out for and we’ll be delighted to read yours as well.