How are you?
Welcome back.Ā
Yonno for the past 2 weeks, weāve been talking about frontend development. Backend guys are jealous and I even need us to take a break from serious talk.Ā
Letās talk about something fun. Something likeš¤ā¦ heartbreaks!
People often say ātech bros are hoesā, āif sheās a tech sis, focus on yourselfā etc, but in reality, techies are humans too & for what itās worth, this breakfast usually does go round.
Prologue
So, I sat down to talk to 3 techies who graciously told me about their heartbreak experiences & how they had to maintain beauty while chopping heartache.
But thereās a way weāre going to do this.
Close your eyes. For realš. Close your eyes. Now imagine that you and other subscribers to the newsletter are attending an event. Done? Great. Letās start.
*MC walks to the stage.
MC: Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Heartbreak edition of our Consonance Club event. To kick start things, letās call on Samuel to lead us in the theme song.Ā
Samuel: Ladies and gentlemen of the tech industry, I believe we all have our pamphlets? Please turn to page 2021, hymn 009. Heartbreak Anniversary written by Giveon. On the count of 1, 2, 3ā¦..Go!
āBalloons are deflated,
I guess they look lifeless like me,
We miss you on your side of the bedā¦ā¦ā
MC: (after the hymn has been sung) Please let us now welcome Precious of Consonance on stage, as she interviews our 1st guest. (Applause.)
Precious: Welcome to the show Tayo. Please share your story with us.Ā
Tayo: My girlfriend broke up with me sometime in April last year. Over the phone.
P: Ah. Over the phoneš?
Tayo: In her defence, we had not seen each other in a while, so we mostly communicate on the phone.Ā
P: Oh okay. What caused the breakup?
Tayo: Well, it really canāt be attributed to one thing. But I remember she complained I wasnāt always calling or showing care like I used to before.Ā
P: Eeyah.Ā
Tayo: You know, I think we both knew it was going to happen at some point, because Iād tried to break up earlier but we tried to patch things up.
P: Well, that obviously didnāt work out. How did you take it?
Tayo: Guyy. I was sad o, but I felt it was a necessary sacrifice. I was going through a rough patch at the time and needed time to clear my head.Ā
I usually donāt show emotions but alaye, I cried.Ā
P: Hard guy in the mud.
Tayo: šMy sister! Anyway, I stumbled on a heartbreak thread on Twitter where people shared movies and songs that made them cry. I wanted to let out all my emotions, so I dug in.
I watched Miracle in Cell No 7. Mo de sun yati.
P: To our non-yoruba speaking friends, that means he cried like crazy.
P: How did you balance work & heartbreak?
Tayo: Plot twist. I got fired
P: Whuttttttttttttttt?
Tayo: It wasnāt because of the heartbreak though. It was the pandemic. The timing was just coincidental. I was fired a few days after the breakup.Ā
P: So, how did you get over it?
Tayo: One way I deal with disappointment is to focus all of my energy on working or building something.
3 months after the breakup, I left Lagos to a place that had 24/7 electricity, abundant food and I had cash. I started life all over again.
No job, no boo. Just me and my aspire to perspire.Ā
P: Maddeaux.
Tayo: I worked on my CV, built a product and tried to launch a startup from it.
P: Enajiiiiiiiiš
Tayo: Anyway, immersing myself in work helped me realize I wasnāt thinking about her that much again. I used the momentum to land a job in a top multinational fintech company.
P: Oshey.šThank you for sharing.Ā
MC: Right about now, weāll go on a commercial break. When we come back, weāll have our next interview session.