The first time...

When was the last time you did something for the first time? 

Scratch that! 

When was the last time you did something that absolutely freaked you out….something that freightned you so much that you thought you would never do it but then you did it?

Do you remember how that felt? That hulla-hoop feeling of victory in your head while your belly tries to ease the quiziness in your stomach and your legs struggle not to yield to the force of gravity pulling at your knees.

I tried to gather research on the benefits (or not) of doing something for the first time and I didn’t find anything (or maybe I was just to lazy at 3am in the morning to actually put my back into it) so I am just going to go off on a limb and tell you what I think, from one of my ‘doing-it-for-the-first-time’ experiences.

I recorded and (had the effontry to) release a song. No, I didn’t just do a speaking cameo (which should probably be ‘my zone’ if I ever lend my vocals to a song again)…I actually sang a whole verse (which I wrote) and chorus (which I co-wrote). It is a song called Let Me Be and I recorded it with Nonny D. 

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Big shout out to Nonny D by the way…he really put a lot of effort into getting me to do that recording and helping me to quash my fears and pretty much just encouraging me to try. 

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I remember how I felt when the song was to be released…the anxiety no be here o. I wondered if people where going to insult me or praise me or tolerate me; I wondered if the song was going to get massive airplay across the country and if, like-play-like-play, I go blow; I wondered if the song would make me popular or notorious. 

If it had been a song that I did all by myself and there was no Nonny D, I would have probably stopped the release of the song because the feelings were overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t delude myself into thinking that I had killed it and that people would be crazy not to love the song….on the contrary, I thought I was about to monumentally fall my hand and loose my strips as a person who could critic music.

Fast forward to the release of the song….It got a good enough rotation on south eastern radio and quite a number of people thought it was a nice enough effort. (I still am not able to wrap my head around some of the mad love the song got though). I even had a few people say that they would like me to ‘bump-a-verse’ on their song. And yes, there were the backlashes (people can be mean sha). I remeber someone calling me up on air to tell me that he used to love me but since I did that song, he had a rethink of his feelings (ouch!).

I took that risk, I did not blow and I did not monumentally fall my hand. But I learned...I now know I will probably not make a living from singing. I also allowed myself to bask in the whilpool of mixed emotions and feedback and now I have a story to tell.

Something else I want to do for the first time (this year I hope) is an extreme sport...possibly sky diving. 

What is your own story of a ‘doing-it-for-the-first-time’ experience. 

I will now proceed to my kitchen to make a cup of black tea (even though this Abuja sun is trying hard to fry my brain)...I hear it has long term uses in preventing a heart attack!