Can you remember those younger day birthdays? Where you stand in front of your cake and take a number of pictures? In some of those parties if your parents are really boxed up they hand out memento’s – complimentary gifts to keep the memory of the day alive. On those gifts you have captions like this- deoluakinyemi is one!

I remember one birthday like that, I went for in my younger days, the caption on the birthday was “Gidayat is 10”, it’ was a party that rocked. The father of the girl, apparently the owner of Fototech, practically asked a few coca cola and 7 up trucks to give the day full coverage. Wherever you went around the alley, there were sufficient drinks and chops for every one. Back in those days, dancing competitions were the order of the day. If you couldn’t dance or better still get a conversation going with a girl, you were not happening. “Gidayat is 10”, I laugh when I remember. Enough about Gidayat though, today it’s deoluakinyemi is one, and watch out for the coca cola trucks 🙂

I want to spend today appreciating God and all of you my readers! This site/blog has been very encouraging for me, I watch the statistics regularly and I’m always excited seeing that you are reading. Just look at the charts, watch the hits, in one year it has multiplied by over 200 (which by the way is what we want to do with GFS :)) . It’s a great thing to watch growth so visibly (from 2059 hits in a month to over 513,459 hits), not just online, but in every area of life.

Day before yesterday, it was very painful for me when the views counter had to be removed. I had outgrown it, but wasn’t willing to let go. (still looking for another one) My site was doing over 10 times more traffic than the person I downloaded it from. There were articles boasting of close to 20,000 views. I didn’t do that, you did, and I’m so very grateful.

Every one of you have played different parts in encouraging me to keep this up. I value you. Imagine what it would feel like, writing and not being read, not getting responses? Don’t get me wrong, there were those times. It didn’t come easy, first you need to be comfortable with yourself, be consistent in what you do, and the world will gradually join you. One of my greatest motivations for continuing however has been the fact that there were people on the other side, waiting…I remember days when as soon as I post an article, I quickly check my admin panel to see if anybody had viewed and within seconds at times I see as much as 30 views. That for me has been very motivating. Thank you.

1. To every one who has posted a comment, making me aware that they were here. Thank you. My God will not leave you without leaving visible signs of his presence.

2. To every one who has ever sent a personal email, asking for clarity, encouraging me, giving suggestions, e.t.c. Thank you. You will receive massages that will gladden your heart.

3. To every one who has ever called, to inform me they are reading, to encourage me to continue, to ask what happened that there was no post yesterday, to ask questions, to give suggestions e.t.c. Thank you. Your ears will never miss direction. You will hear a voice behind you, pointing you in the right direction.

4. To those of you who challenge me and tell me “it’s not daily anymore oh”, Thank you. Your words keep me awake at times.

5. To those of you, who have gathered inspiration from watching me grow my blog, and have gone ahead to start yours or double up. Thank you. Whenever I browse the net and I see, you. I feel motivated to double my pace.

7. To many of you, who I don’t know, who don’t call, who don’t mail or comment, but that I see your footprints in the sands of the site, Thank you too. I know you are there. I’ll love you to be more visible in my life, but I love you all the same.

I look forward to another year with you, not only you, but your friends, your brothers, sisters and your colleagues. When I got online, I thought I had come online 3-4yrs too late. Don’t push away anything in your life, it’s never too late. Whatever your dreams are, start today! Even if you don’t hit gold, at least the world will say you have x-yrs experience. Start gaining experience doing what you love. Start, you have the days ahead to figure out precisely how.

To compensate a few people on my deoluakinyemi is one birthday. I am hereby launching a small competition.

The top 10 commentators (please only approved comments will be counted, repeated comments and phony comments will not be approved) on this blog this month, as shown at the sidebar will win a free subscription to RECHARGE (By the way, we have two editions out now, and the third in the making). The top 5 commentators will win Generis Branded Insulated Mugs (If you are out of the country, you’ll get it when you come) and free domain name and starter pack hosting for one year (Nairahost is sponsoring this). The number 1 commentator, will win a free 1hr lunch date and coaching session with me.( I can come only as far as the UK for now, no further :))

In later competitions, I hope to secure something I’m already working on, return tickets to either of UK, South Africa, Senegal or Douala. I’ll get these hopefully, so you can watch out for future competitions. But for now, let’s have fun managing the prizes above.

Finally…Thank you!