This is my story.
How We Met
I met Sadiya in 200 level during GST class. The lecturer was shouting, the hall was hot, and she was sitting in front of me pressing phone like exam was inside it. I tapped her shoulder and asked for a pen. She smiled and gave me one. That smile alone enter my system.
We started talking after that class. One thing led to another, and before second semester ended, we were already calling each other “my person.”
No car.
No big money.
Just love and trekking.
Our Kind of Love
We walked everywhere together. From lecture hall to hostel. From cafeteria to library.
Sometimes I used my last ₦500 to buy meat pie and Zobo for her. She would cook Indomie with egg for me and call it “special dinner.” That was our romance.
I was in 300 level, doing small hustle: designing flyers, helping people with assignments, anything that could bring food money. She always said, “I believe in you.”
I believed her too.
Enter the Final Year Guy With Car
One day, she changed.
Less calls.
Late replies.
Always “busy.”
Then I noticed one tall guy dropping her near her hostel with Corolla and tinted glass. Final year Engineering student.
People started telling me:
“Guy, your babe don see upgrade.”
“That guy dey settle her.”
I didn’t believe it. Love no be about car, right?
I was wrong.
The Day She Left
She called me to meet her under the mango tree behind faculty building.
She couldn’t look at my face.
She said:
“You’re a good person… but I think we want different things.”
Different things.
She said the guy supports her financially.
That he understands her better.
That he has plans.
I just nodded like someone that failed test.
So love now needs car and pocket money?
Watching Them Together
After that, I saw them everywhere.
Driving past me while I was trekking.
Holding hands near the café.
Posting pictures like “Answered prayers.”
Me? I was still managing my CGPA and my heartbreak.
Sometimes she looked guilty.
Sometimes like I never existed.
That pain pass carryover.
What I Thought Would Happen
Inside my mind, I was comforting myself:
“This thing will not last.”
“When that guy dumps her, she will regret leaving me.”
“She will come back and beg.”
I was waiting for karma like episode of series.
I thought:
Car today, heartbreak tomorrow.
I thought I knew how her story would end.
I was wrong again.
The Twist
Two years later, I was in final year.
One afternoon, my phone started blowing with messages.
“Have you seen Sadiya’s status?”
“Guy go check WhatsApp now.”
I opened it.
There she was.
Wearing white.
Smiling like nothing ever broke her heart.
The same final year guy — now graduate — knelt down in front of her on her sign-out day.
Banner.
Flowers.
Ring.
Proposal on sign-out day.
Weeks later, wedding pictures followed.
They got married.
No breakup.
No karma.
No return to me.
Just… marriage.
That Day I Understood Life
That day, something entered my brain.
Not every story will end the way you imagine.
Not every person that leaves you will suffer.
Not every pain is punishment.
I learned that:
Sometimes, people don’t leave because you’re bad.
They leave because their journey is different.
I thought she made a mistake.
But maybe she just made her own choice.
Moral of the Story
You are not God.
You don’t decide people’s destiny.
Just because something didn’t go the way you wanted
doesn’t mean it went wrong.
What will be, will be.
Some people are part of your chapter,
not your whole book.
To Nigerian Students in Love
✔ Love is good
✔ Hustle is better
✔ Self-growth is compulsory
✔ Don’t wish bad for people that left you
Campus love will teach you lessons faster than any lecturer.
Today, I don’t hate her.
I don’t hate him.
I just understand life better.
I loved her.
She chose another path.
And that path worked for her.
My own path will work too.
Because not every heartbreak is loss.
Some are redirection.
