I have about 30 first-cousins (give or take a couple) on my father's side alone.
As a child I was always eager for the next family gathering where the full range of uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins and in-laws were always on hand to tease, lecture, make fun of, and scandalize each other. Stories grew into legends and epics after being repeated over and over again over the family dinner table. And almost all the stereotypes were represented in my quite extensive extended family.
The quiet head of the family, my dad's oldest brother who never said much but was deeply respected across the family. The larger-than-life uncle who had a booming laugh and almost always talked in capital letters. The rakish younger uncle who cracked up his nephews and nieces with fabrications dressed up as true stories; the aunt who was famous for her verbal missiles but who no one quite had the gall to confront her about it; the cool successful cousin who all the mothers held up as a measure of how we should aspire to be like... you name it, it seemed my family had the whole caboodle.
But as is the nature of the current world, such family gatherings have dwindled in the last few years and this is in no small part to the dispersion of family members to corners around the globe. London, Oxford, Birmingham, New York, Durban, Kansas, Atlanta, Boston, Libreville, are all cities that play host to an Ajayi. Current and former. And of course the Ajayi family even manage to have a representative in Aotearoa as well.
So a pretty international-based family.
And then add to this my friends. During my time in AIESEC, I shared intensely deep experiences with individuals from across the globe. A lot of these experiences at 10-day conferences and a lot when I lived in Stockholm, traveled a bit around Europe and met such an amazing spectrum of life-stories, passions and learning's which were all wrapped up in the unique idiosyncrasies of each individual person. I used to boast to my friends here in New Zealand that there was nary a country Europe I would visit and not be able to count on a couch to sleep on.
Or at least there would be if I kept in touch with any of these people.
I have been enjoying married life so much with my queen that I find I have been retreating away from the single most important item that I took away with me from AIESEC. My network. And it seems so silly in this day and age of twitters, facebook and skype that I am not in constant, daily contact with people who have made the tapestry of my life like a coat of many colours!
And of course I must not forget the "friends of my youth", those I grew up with and have known outside my AIESEC crowd and who are mostly still back in Nigeria.
So this coming week, I will be spending a whole lot more time on the phone, Internet and email to try and strengthen those contacts I have made and who knows maybe even make a few more. http://nomadlife.org/ is an especially good tool to just catch up on what people are up to and Facebook makes it even easier to actually get in touch and communicate with people.
So, if we have ever crossed paths in the past, you just might be getting an email, phone-call or maybe just a comment from me on your FB page in the coming weeks.
(I have almost a thousand friends on FB, suffice to say not all the people on that list will be hearing from me. Unfortunately)
