To the Ones Becoming

Who Wrote the Script? By Olayide  Juliana A young advocate reflects on Nigeria’s Reserved Seats Bill and the power of fragile hope. I thought my activism side had died. I thought my passion for change had burned out somewhere between the reality of adulthood and the chaos of trying to survive it. I started Lead for Change Africa Initiative at a very young age — full of fire, full of dreams. I believed in the possibility of a perfect Nigeria, a world where young people could rise like giants, inspired by icons like Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, and Malala. Then life hit. I transitioned from teenage idealism into adult disillusionment. I struggled. I withdrew. I told myself I’d just let things be. But three years later — unplanned, unsolicited — I found myself right back in the middle of advocacy and social impact. This time, as a job. The job that pays my bills. I currently serve as the Communications Officer on a project called Advancing Women's Political Participation , impl...

Still Becoming By  Olayide  Juliana If there’s one lesson—scratch that, if there are a thousand lessons I’ve learned from watching the great blockbuster series Mad Men , I only hope I truly internalize them. I hope I haven’t just watched for entertainment, to pass time, or to check off a classic. I hope every word, line, scene, and character deposited something lasting—something I might never get taught, even when I live out all my years on earth. Normally, after I watch a series, I start looking up the actors. I search for who they are in real life, what they’ve starred in before or after, their interviews, their quirks, their Instagram accounts... And once I do that, I usually feel that emotional detachment. Like the magic breaks a little. I say to myself, “Oh, they’re just actors playing a part,” and I move on. But not with Mad Men . This one won’t let me go. Something about it keeps hitting hard. Keeps calling me back. My eyes have opened. My knowledge expanded. M...

The Days I Chose to Show Up A writing series by Olayide  Juliana This isn’t a perfect series. It isn’t planned, plotted, or polished to impress. It’s honest. It’s messy. It’s me—showing up one day at a time. I started this five-day writing challenge not to prove anything, but to return to myself. To write not because I had the words, but because I needed to find them. Each day, I came with what I had—sometimes clarity, sometimes questions. But I showed up. And that, I’ve learned, is the first victory. These are the pages from that quiet unfolding. The raw, reflective, sometimes tear-stained moments I decided not to run from. I call them: The Days I Chose to Show Up.