# An Ode to Fooling

**Published by:** [Oreoluwa's Musings](https://paragraph.com/@trc/)
**Published on:** 2025-06-01
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@trc/an-ode-to-fooling

## Content

Hi There! My name is Oreoluwa and I don’t have any personal anecdotes today. Life is hard and I’m sad. Send me money. I’ve been reading some personal essays from the brilliant Elewa’s Substack, and while they’ve been great, they’ve chipped away at a part of my soul. As I’ve grown ‘professionally’, I’ve found it harder to speak so plainly about the more fallible aspects of my life and personality. Maybe it feels like this because there are a lot more eyes, a lot more people accustomed to seeing me in a certain light. Maybe I’m afraid to let people see what’s really happening under the hood for fear of how they'll see me afterwards. Chai, look at me caring what other people think in big 2025. Usually, in my newsletters, I would follow this train of thought and talk about how we can all do with a little doggedness and carefree attitude; how we need to persevere with the things that we want to do, regardless of what anyone thinks, as long as it’s not damaging any lives and property (unnecessarily). But you know that already, don’t you? Besides, today is not about you. It’s about me, so grab a chair and listennn, and then we can all talk later. Lorokan, I’ve allowed that fear stifle one of my more effective coping mechanisms, so much so that I’ve been recently charged with ‘losing my writing identity’ (lool, yet another thing to add to the ever-growing list of things I’ve lost lately), and it couldn’t have come at a worse possible time. I’ve always flirted with the idea of having a burner account. Don’t get me wrong, I have couple already (for other purposes which may or may not be nefarious), but I’ve always liked the idea of having one close enough to my identity that people know it’s me, but far enough that it’s contents are not brought into my more physical spaces or associated with my ‘professional’ persona. In other words, I’d like the license to fool and the license to do it expeditiously. I’d very likely give my opinions on issues that’ll definitely get me dragged, like how smoothies are an abomination to mankind; but it’ll be an interesting change from silently agreeing with a twitter warrior who has been turned to tiger generator for tweeting something I said to my boys in hostel. All this would’ve stayed wishful thinking, and at most words, on a Substack nobody would read, but Whatsapp had other plans, and amidst the frustration of having my messages wiped yet again because of some ‘error’ (I will actually stand naked in the market square and curse Zucky and his people soon), I decided to channel my inner Elewa and become a twitter menace for the weekend. No internalised screening and scrutinization process. No worrying about what my TL will think or say; just straight up fooling, and boy was it funn. If you thought I was going to show pictures of my twets, sorry, nothing for you. Go check my twitter out here Thanks for reading Oreoluwa’s Musings! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Reputations aside, I can be pretty wound up (as my roommate would gladly attest), but you too, what is funny in this place? Tinubu is president, dollar is like 1600 and life is one long slew of hardships and disappointments. However, this weekend, I goofed, bantered, used the almighty format (iykyk, but also iyk it means you’re online too much, go and touch grass) and made a friend. Perhaps most importantly though, I shared some feelings that have been eating me up inside, and while I’m not looking for replies per se, it’s certainly nice to be able to scream into the void without overthinking it. Will I keep this up, though? I don’t know tbh. Life is somehow, and things happen every day. I might want to go back to being serious Ore tomorrow, or I might start a cult. Nobody knows the future. What I do know, though, is that this mini-experiment has been a wake-up call for me (and fine, maybe for you too) to the fact that I need to express myself more, even if it is shamelessly. I think it’s the thing I’ve missed most about writing (and shouting in the woods in Iwo), that ability to let loose in self-expression and the jolt of life that comes with it. Exhilarating. And given where I am in life right now (more on that in later stories), exhilarating might be just what I need to get going again. So here’s to a little fooling. On Twitter, with my mates, and in general. Because we all need a little more to laugh about, don’t we? (answer in the comments) PS. In all your fooling, don’t be creepy or hateful. Don’t ruin the fun. Maybe I’ll see you again soon, maybe not… Either way, though, you have… All my love, Oreoluwa. Thanks for reading Oreoluwa’s Musings! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share

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