FYB Week Has Started — Corporate Day Down, More Fits Coming All Week

Greetings Steemit family! 👋 For those who don't know, FYB stands for Final Year Brethren. It's something Nigerian final year students do near graduation, a week where we celebrate that we've almost made it, with a different theme each day. Honestly I didn't even properly understand what FYB Week was until 300 level myself, so if you're not familiar with it either, you're not alone. Yesterday was Corporate Day, the opening of the week. I want to be honest about how it actually felt, not just show you the pictures.

The Outfit

My Corporate Day fit for the day

White polo with orange stripes, I loved the quarter-zip detail on the collar, paired with black wide-leg trousers and chunky loafers. Kept it simple with just a silver watch. Smart-casual but still comfortable enough to actually get through the day in.
And I was not the only one who put in effort. Looking around, everybody ate that day. My course mates showed up looking like actual professionals, not students. It was clear people had been planning their outfits for a while.

The Day Itself

Here is the part most people will not tell you. Before any of the photos, before the laughing and posing, we had exams from 8am to 2pm. Corporate Day landed right in the middle of our exam week. So by the time we were dressed and ready to celebrate, half of us were already mentally drained from writing papers all morning.
After 2pm we walked over to one of the finer buildings on campus and that is when the real Corporate Day energy started. My course mates were everywhere, different angles of the building, laughing, posing, taking pictures in groups and alone.

Me with my friends kelvin and Godswill
My friends Kelvin and Godswill were right there with me through most of it.
I felt proud in that moment. I had written the exam that morning and I genuinely felt I did well. I did not feel left out while everyone was taking pictures, because I had put in the same effort with my outfit. That pride was real.

With my course rep, who has held us all together since 100 level

The Moment That Actually Stuck With Me

At some point I got tired. Not sad, just physically and mentally drained from the day. I found somewhere to sit while everyone else kept taking pictures around me.
And sitting there, watching my course mates laugh and pose, something quieter hit me. I started thinking about how far we have all come. From 100 level to final year. All the courses, all the stress, all the years. Everybody around me looked happy in that moment, and I sat there just absorbing it, half proud, half exhausted, fully aware that we are almost at the end of something we have been building since we were fresh students who did not know anything yet.
That is the part no photo captures. The tiredness underneath the smiles. The quiet reflection happening while everyone else is performing joy for the camera.

What's Next

I still have four more papers to write next week, and the celebration is not done either. Monday is Jersey Day, so expect to see me and my course mates repping our favorite teams and players. After that there are more themed days still coming before FYB Week wraps up.
I have decided to turn this into a small series here on Steemit. Each day FYB Week has a theme, I will drop my outfit and how the day actually went, the proud moments and the tired ones, right here. So if you are curious what Jersey Day looks like on a Nigerian campus, stick around for the next post.
FYB Week is teaching me something I did not expect already. You can be proud and exhausted at the same time. You can celebrate how far you have come while still being deep in the middle of finishing the journey.
I would like to know how was your own FYB Week experience? Drop your favorite day's theme in the comments
I would like to know invite some of my friends to watch my diary game
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