LORI IRO
Several years ago, as a young lady, I was a successful entrepreneur.

Big girls around us always flaunt the gifts their boyfriend gives them, expensive exotic gifts that made we ladies green with envy.

That period, I was dating a guy who doesn't spend heavenly on me, he doesn't have that kind of cash to spare.
I envied my friends with their rich boyfriends. I wish to be like them.

These ladies seems to have the best of everything and they sure were having a really good time.

Over time, we ladies who didn't have rich boyfriends became intimidated.

Whenever we are together, all they talk about was their boyfriends, the things they bought for them and the numerous trips they had to exciting places. I decided I was going to join them but in my own way.

I bought myself expensive things, I was doing well that period and could afford it. I showed it to them as gifts from my boyfriend. Whenever they flaunt their gifts, I always have something to show, I wouldn't allow them to intimidate me.

It became an habit and my other friends who didn't have rich boyfriends to buy them expensive things envied me and wished to be like me.

One Valentine period, I got a pack of Victoria secret panties as my valentine gift from boo. Other ladies were showing off the expensive things they got from their boos. I bought things, expensive things and added to the gift my boo bought for me. I showed it to my friends as gifts from him.

My friends were envious and didn't hide it. They wished to be like me. They wanted a rich boyfriend like mine. If only they knew the truth. �

One of my friends who didn't get any gift from her boyfriend broke up with him. He came to complain to me and asked me to beg her on his behalf.

I did as he asked of me, she has something to say.

Friend: Babe, I am tired of Femi and his excuses. He hardly gives me gifts. He is always complaining of one thing or the other. Is he not suppose to take care of me as my boyfriend? I can't continue like this, no, we should part ways. I need a better guy in my life, let him go."���

She was angry as she explained to me.

ME: But Femi is good now, he is trying.

FRIEND: Trying in what way? He is too stingy for my liking abeg. Is Sunny not a man like him, why is he treating you like a queen? Sunny gives you things but no, all Femi knows is to give excuses upon excuses. He even collects from me instead of giving me, " she vituparate in anger.���

I felt quilty, if only she knew the truth. ���

ME: See babe, it is not as you think. Everybody is not the same, Femi really loves you. Don't leave him, please I beg you. Don't leave him."

FRIEND: All what you are saying is story, I have already left him, I need a better guy in my life. Abeg leave that talk for market women, let's discuss something better.".

She suddenly changed the topic of our discussion.

I tried to make her change her mind but she stood her ground. It was not only that, my friend insisted she was locating to another town. She wanted to go look for a man that would spend on her the way my boo does.���

God help me, guilt almost kill me but I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth.☹️☹️☹️☹️

She eventually left town for another where she went to stay with her elder sister.

Babe came back to town several months after. She didn't see the kind of man she was looking for. She claimed that the men she met are all heels. What they wanted from her was for their own selfish reason and she was not ready to give in to them.

She came back to continue searching as she hoped for a good, caring man to come her way.

Boo finally proposed to me. My friend enter factory setting depression. I couldn't bear it any more, I had to open up to her.

See me see crucification. Babe didn't take it easy with me. She accused me of being the devil itself. She said I was the cause of her separation from her former boo who truly loves her. ��

She spread the news around like CNN

A lot of my friends avoided me like the plague.

I lost some of them and things never remain the same with us.

I learnt a lesson or two from that experience and I changed for the better.

You see this peer pressure of a thing, it is the doom of many teenagers.

Many of us are here right now, we live on lies and deceit. Lori Iro.

My friends have it, i must have it. You are not satisfied with what you have, it becomes a competition.

Ladies, free yourself from competition. Be contended with what you have. That person you are looking up to may be living a fake life; a really fake life.

Be yourself, don't do it because others are doing it. Do it because you have a conviction that it is the right thing to do.

Deception may give us what we want for the present but it will always take it away in the end.

Be contended with what you have because a harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment.

A coward hides behind lies and deceit.

And if you are here, your life is centered on lies, deceit and falsehood, it is not the best way to live.

Lies and secrets are like cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction.

Lori iro, Iro poo, let us change for good.

Peace and Love
Ono Ogiaga.

Nice post and experience. i hope our girls will learn from this post.