The Diary Game | A Sunday Without Church, A Haircut, Missing Boots & A Room That Turned Party Hall - 26/04/2026

praizclassic01 (61)in RECREATIVE STEEM • 25 days ago

Hello hello my wonderful Steemit family! It's your friend @praizclassic01 and I'm back with another diary entry. Today is Sunday and before you ask — no, I didn't go to church. And before you judge me, let me explain myself. Kind of.

Every excuse I could give, my own mind immediately counters it.

If I say I didn't iron my clothes — well, light came early enough this morning for me to do the ironing if I had wanted to. If I say there was no water — I already had water ready. If I say I wasn't feeling well — I was fine.

The truth? I just didn't want to. I made no preparation, no effort, and I didn't go. I'm not going to dress it up with excuses because every single one of them falls apart the moment I examine it.

So I woke up this morning, looked at the ceiling, and went back to sleep.

I'll do better next Sunday. We move.

Eventually got up properly, brushed my teeth and decided that since I wasn't going to church, the day wasn't going to be wasted. Next week lectures begin in full earnest and I needed to be ready.

One thing I didn't do before leaving home was iron my clothes. With everything else I had prepared and packed, ironing somehow didn't make the list. So today was the day to fix that.

The ironing session begins — almost a full bag of clothes to go through

It took a while. A long while actually. Almost my entire bag of clothes needed pressing. But by the time I was done, I felt that quiet satisfaction of having things in order. Clothes sorted, week ahead looking more manageable.

Still in the spirit of preparing for the week, I went looking for my school barber.

Now — finding this guy is an adventure of its own. He's a mobile barber, meaning he doesn't have a fixed spot. No shop, no particular location where you can just walk in and find him. You have to call, set an appointment, and hope he shows up. And sometimes he does. And sometimes you get an apology instead.

This brings me to something I want to address seriously for a moment:

Punctuality and reliability are not small things — especially in business.

When you set an appointment and consistently fail to keep it, you are quietly telling your clients that their time doesn't matter to you. And time, once spent, cannot be recovered. The person waiting for you has other things they could be doing, other plans they've paused, other barbers they could have called. Every time you cancel last minute or show up late without warning, you chip away at something that is very hard to rebuild — trust.

Unreliability makes you unpredictable. And people don't build long term relationships with unpredictable people, in business or in life. No matter how talented you are, if people can't count on you to show up when you say you will, your skill becomes secondary. Clients will eventually find someone slightly less talented but far more dependable — and they won't look back.

Keep your word. Keep your time. That alone sets you apart from the majority.

To his credit though — when he finally does show up, the work speaks for itself. He's genuinely good at what he does. And his pricing? Almost half of what the regular barbing shops in school charge. So I understand that demand for him is high and being a student barber on the move isn't easy. While he's cutting your hair someone else is already calling or standing outside waiting. It's a lot to manage.

But the time-keeping thing? That still needs work.

Today he came through and I got my cut.

In the barber's chair — finally!

After the haircut, I noticed the shaving on my cheeks and under my chin wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked — a bit rough to the touch. And then I remembered something I had packed in my personal care bag.

Veet — a hair removal cream.

The Veet cream — this gave me an idea

I decided to try something. Using a mirror, I carefully applied the cream only on the areas I wanted smoother. I had to be precise — with something like Veet, one wrong move and you've removed hair from somewhere you definitely didn't intend to.

Applied it, left it on for the recommended time, then washed it off during my bath.

The difference was noticeable immediately. Much smoother than the razor had left it.

The result — smooth and clean

Small discovery, good result. Sometimes the things you pack without thinking about them too much end up being exactly what you needed.

If you read yesterday's diary, you'll remember I exchanged boots with someone on the field during the HODs Cup matches. Well — today I went to get mine back.

And this is where I made a mistake I'm now paying for.

When we made the exchange, I only got his hostel block and room number. Not his name. And you know how it is with guys — you can know someone's face, know their game, greet them every time you see them and never once exchange names. We just... know each other. Without actually knowing each other.

So I went to the block, went to the room number he gave me, and described him to the people there. Nobody knew who I was talking about. I stood there second-guessing myself — did I hear the wrong block? The wrong room? But no, I'm sure of what I heard.

This evening I went to the field to see if I'd find him there. He wasn't around.

On my way back I passed through the hostel playground area and they were seriously balling there — a good crowd too.

The playground balling session — checked here too, no sign of him

I scanned the players and the crowd watching. He wasn't there either. So I just left.

I'm not panicking — the boots aren't lost. I know that. But you know how some people borrow something and just... keep using it comfortably until they're fully satisfied before thinking to return it? Yeah.

The reason I was even trying to get the boots back today specifically is that I planned to restart my morning workouts tomorrow. Now I have to figure out what to wear on my feet for that. Not ideal.

Lesson learned — always get a name. A block number and a face description will only take you so far.

Now here's where the day took a beautiful turn.

Earlier in the week, one of our roommates had fallen ill and had to go home for treatment. While he was away, we kept in touch — calls, chats, checking on how he was doing. Yesterday evening he came back to the room, fully recovered and looking well.

And today, he came with a bottle of wine to appreciate everyone in the room for checking on him while he was away.

This evening, when everyone was gathered in the room, we opened it together. He was given the floor to introduce the drink and say a few words — he spoke genuinely, explained why he brought it, and we responded the way a room should. We sang, we prayed, we thanked God for his health and for everyone's wellbeing.

And then — trust the boys to add their own touch. 😂

We had just replaced a bulb in the room when we resumed, a double-coloured one — white and blue. The moment the prayer ended, someone switched from white to blue light. Just like that, the room transformed.

Blue light mode activated — the room became a whole vibe

What followed was just genuine, unscripted happiness. Music, laughter, everyone present and in good spirits.

And I want to sit here for a moment because this scene meant more than it might look like on the surface.

Think about it — in that room, there are people from different states, different backgrounds, different departments and faculties. Different upbringings, different beliefs, different everything. And yet in that moment, none of that mattered. Everyone was present, everyone was singing, everyone was happy together.

This is what genuine community looks like. Not the forced kind, not the kind that exists only on paper — but the kind that shows up when someone is sick and checks on them. The kind that celebrates someone's recovery with the same energy it would celebrate a big win. The kind that can turn a regular Sunday evening into a memory.

The world could honestly learn something from moments like this. We spend so much time focused on what divides us — tribe, background, status, opinion — that we miss how easily joy multiplies when we simply choose to be present with each other. You don't need a big occasion. Sometimes all it takes is a bottle of wine, a blue bulb and a room full of people who genuinely care.

Moments like this are what I'll remember long after school is over. Aside the NEPA, the hunger, the stress.

So that was my Sunday. No church — and I own that honestly. But the day wasn't wasted. Clothes ironed, fresh haircut, a little skincare experiment, a failed boot search, and an evening that turned into something genuinely beautiful.

If you made it to church today, good for you. If you didn't but spent your day doing something meaningful and worthwhile, that counts too. And if you had absolutely no reason not to go... well, we'll both do better next week.

Happy new week in advance to everyone reading this! I'm wishing you a week full of good things, light that stays on, food that gets cooked, and people around you who genuinely mean well.

Thank you for always reading and supporting. See you in the next one!

— @praizclassic01

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